Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna

Caritas Vienna
Seat	Vienna , Austria
main emphasis	Social work , humanitarian aid
people	Michael Landau (Director)
sales	360,108,000 euros (2017)
Employees	5,511 (2017)
Volunteers	12,316 (2017)
Website	www.caritas-wien.at

The Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna is a social organization of the Roman Catholic church in the Austrian federal state of Vienna and the eastern Lower Austria . It is part of Caritas Austria , but an independent institution and reports to the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Vienna .

organization

The Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna includes Vienna and the eastern half of Lower Austria.

Michael Landau has been the director since 1995 . Since 2013 he has also been the director of Caritas Austria .

General secretaries and managing directors are Alexander Bodmann and Klaus Schwertner .

Other board members and department heads are:

Christian Klein, Head of the Care and Maintenance division
Elke Beermann, Head of Help in Need
Sonja Weiklstorfer, head of the area for people with disabilities
Georg Irsa, head of community work
Gudrun Gusel, Head of Foreign Aid

A total of 5,511 employees and 12,316 volunteers work at Caritas Vienna and Lower Austria East.

tasks

Caritas Vienna and Lower Austria East offers help in the following areas:

Advice and emergency aid

Entrance to the emergency shelter crypt

In the area of "Advice and Emergency Aid" there are the following priorities:

Social and financial emergencies: This primarily includes information about the social landscape in Vienna and Lower Austria, the referral to the responsible public authorities as well as assistance in drawing up a budget. Advice for people with a migration background or homeless EU citizens about emergency care offers (food, clothing, medical care) is also free and also available in several languages.

Emergency sleeping places: In cooperation with the Social Vienna Fund , Caritas Vienna operates the central first point of contact for homeless people in Vienna. All night emergency beds are recorded here so that acutely homeless people can be placed in vacant places. In addition, social workers help clarify financial claims. Caritas Vienna also operates emergency sleeping places for women, men and children (Miriam House, JUCA, Gruft , Second Crypt , Rupert Mayer House, Vinzenzhaus, a_way).

Delivery for the Le + O project

Day stay : The women's living room is available as a retreat four days a week, especially for women . The day center at Vienna Central Station offers all men and women aged 18 and over a place to rest, shower and do their laundry seven days a week. Day care is also available in the crypt and in the second crypt. The 24 warming rooms of the Parish Caritas enabled over 10,000 people to stay in the warm in 2017.

Food distribution in the Le + O project

Groceries and meals: Every evening the Canisibus brings warm soup to those in need. Up to 450 servings are served daily on fixed routes through the city. The Le + O project, in which food is distributed to people at risk of poverty, rests on three pillars : Companies collect food that can no longer be sold. It is issued weekly by volunteers. At the same time, social workers advise customers on site free of charge.

Medical care: Doctors and volunteers bring free medical care to homeless people in the Louisebus Monday through Friday .

Cold telephone: A cold telephone manned by 60 volunteers is available around the clock during the winter months. Concerned people can call here if they see homeless people in danger. In 2017, 7,260 calls were received.

Clothing: In the Caritas camps in the 5th district of Vienna Margareten and in Wiener Neustadt , clothing is given away at a 70% discount for people at risk of poverty.
Grief: In addition to individual counseling or in different grief groups, joint activities are also offered.

maintenance

A key goal in the care sector is to look after old people in their own homes for as long as possible. If this is no longer possible, retirement and nursing homes are available. There is also advice and support for relatives.

Care at home: an easy-to-use emergency telephone guarantees help after a fall or a weakness. Nursing assistants take on household tasks and accompany the patient to the doctor. Qualified nurses take care of the necessary medical care, such as measuring blood sugar and changing bandages. Physiotherapists mobilize people in need of care after an accident or after an operation. 24-hour care is provided for intensive care, with qualified nursing staff carrying out regular quality controls.
Residential houses: If it is no longer possible to live at home, Caritas Vienna and Lower Austria East offers accommodation in twelve old people's and nursing homes in Vienna, Baden , Klosterneuburg and Kirchschlag .
Support for relatives: Family members who look after their relatives can receive advice, training on how to deal with dementia and relief through short-term care at home or in a nursing home.

hospice

Terminally ill people receive free support in the mobile hospice: Doctors and trained volunteers help with medical care and care. They relieve and support relatives by the hour. The day hospice in Alterlaa is open twice a week , where the seriously ill can spend a day relaxing and caring.

Children and family

Modern house facade in white-blue with the Caritas sign.

Family Center Vienna, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 140

Family centers: Individuals, couples or families receive advice and psychotherapy in the family centers in Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Baden and Mistelbach .
Mobile family help: In emergency situations, family help takes care of childcare, housework or administrative procedures at short notice. For families with underage children who are in ongoing crises, a team can look for solutions directly with and in the family on behalf of the responsible authority ( MA 11 in Vienna or district administration in Lower Austria). Specifically, it can include advice on raising children and financial budget planning as well as structuring everyday life. There is also special support for families with disabled children and young people.
youngCaritas shows young people how to bring help quickly with small actions. Examples are collecting food, starting charity campaigns, bringing variety to refugee and homeless shelters and giving tutoring.
The Center for Women's Health offers women and girls with a migration background advice and information on nutrition, lifestyle, health care, sexuality and family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. The talks could take place in Arabic , English , German , Farsi , Spanish and Turkish .

Shelter and housing

Women's Housing Center Vienna

For people who have lost their home, the "emergency aids" described above are available at short notice: advice, emergency shelter, warm soup and a day stay.
The FrauenWohnZentrum in Vienna's 2nd district offers 32 women over the age of 18 a furnished single room with a kitchenette and shower.
There are three houses in Vienna for mothers with children.
Homeless men, women and couples between the ages of 18 and 30 can live in the JUCA house for up to two years. A total of 67 single living spaces and 16 sleeping spaces in shared rooms are available.
Up to twelve young men, also with alcohol and drug problems, can find a place to live in a shared flat with single or double rooms. Common room, kitchen and sanitary rooms have to be shared.

Work and employment

Close-up of old house with scaffolding for facade renovation in front of it. Above the entrance gate in the middle is a sign saying "Inigo".

Caritas restaurant Inigo

The aim of the topic “Work and Employment” is to bring unemployed women and men back into working life.

Advice: A job-oriented individual coaching of up to twelve months and the organization of internships should ensure a steady income in the long term.

Caritas furniture transport
Employment projects: The employment projects enable concrete experience in professional life. The socio-economic company offers a temporary job in the maintenance, furniture transport, green space maintenance, warehouse work, woodwork / carpentry, sales, painting and varnishing, office ancillary services, catering or cleaning sectors. The preWork project offers young people between the ages of 15 and 21 a first job in a wood and design workshop for six months. The reStart project offers something similar in the field of recycling for NEET young people. Long-term unemployed people in particular get a temporary job in the INIGO restaurant or in the kitchen in the Schönbrunn care home. Possible uses are service, kitchen, catering or cleaning. In the areas of cash register, delicatessen, dry goods, fruit and vegetables, shelf maintenance and cleaning, the cooperation with Spar and the AMS Vienna offers temporary employment in a grocery store in Vienna's 10th district.
Social business: Caritas Vienna implements social business projects under the umbrella brand "magdas" . The concept goes back to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus . The aim is to bring people with few job opportunities and different cultural backgrounds together and to create meaningful jobs in the private sector. Projects are a hotel in Vienna 2, a restaurant in Vienna 10, facility management for the Archdiocese of Vienna, two large kitchens for the Caritas Vienna nursing homes, the recycling of mobile phones ( Ö3 lucky bag ) and a Spar supermarket in Bad Pirawarth .

Asylum and integration

For refugee families, Caritas Vienna offers:

Advice for refugees and migrants : The content includes clarification of asylum law perspectives and preparation for an interview at the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, as well as return advice and support in obtaining travel documents and help in establishing contacts with relatives in the home country.
Training and work: The focus here is on German courses with accompanying social counseling. In addition, educational advice on the subject of the labor market and work training for persons entitled to asylum in the integration year are offered.
Living: Flat-sharing communities are available especially for unaccompanied minors. There are also residential buildings for adults and some starter apartments.
Together: Lectures, workshops, training to get to know and understand should help to break down prejudices.

People with disabilities

For children and young people with disabilities there are four shared apartments in Vienna with single or double rooms, medical care and therapy offers with the aim of being able to participate in social life again. For affected families, leisure activities and help with upbringing as well as cooperation with kindergarten and school are offered. Caritas Vienna also runs the School in the Sky for disabled children. It has been run as an inclusion school since 2015 .
Day centers: In Vienna as well as in the Wein- and Industrieviertel there are day-care centers that offer disabled people employment in different groups: for example sensory groups with offers for all senses, creative groups for working with different materials or practical groups for everyday work like this cooking together.
Living with brain damage: Wiener Neustadt has a fully supervised living group and a day care center for people with complex brain damage.
People with mental illness are given outpatient advice in the Social Psychiatric Center in Vienna. The focus is on caring for schizophrenic people. In Wiener Neustadt, work in workshops, cognitive training, music therapy and clubs to promote social reintegration are offered in fully and partially supervised living groups.

Parish charity

For work in the parishes, Caritas Vienna offers support in the planning and implementation of Parish Caritas projects, further training, and information and work documents.

financing

The income of Caritas Vienna and Lower Austria East consists mainly of fees for services (81%) as well as donations (9%) and subsidies (9%). In 2017 the total budget was 360,108,000 euros. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, donations to Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna are tax deductible as special expenses.

The expenses according to service areas are:

Area	Thousand euro
Care, nursing homes	64.710
People with disabilities	54,738
Care at home, hospice	53,656
Asylum, Migration and Integration	44.197
people in need	26,712
Employment projects	17.179
Foreign aid	10,047
Familys	6.227
Emergency aid to refugees	3,364
Children and youth	2,601
Parish charity	2,220
Training	1.611
Payment on behalf of the public sector	54,074
Administration and infrastructure	14,736
Cost of fundraising	2,366
Pension projects 2018	1,625
TOTAL	360.108