German Children and Youth Foundation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS) is a non-profit limited company based in Berlin , which is committed to good growing conditions and educational opportunities for young people. As an operational organization, it develops programs for this and implements them with partners. The DKJS sees itself as an independent, non-denominational and politically neutral initiative.

history

The DKJS was founded in 1994 on the initiative of the International Youth Foundation and the then President of the Bundestag Rita Süssmuth . In the first few years, the area of ​​activity of the DKJS extended mainly to the new federal states. Today the DKJS operates nationwide. From 2002 to 2006 Christina Rau (until 2006), the wife of the then Federal President Johannes Rau , took over the chairmanship together with Lothar Späth (until 2010), former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg. Since then, the wives or partners of the subsequent Federal Presidents have been committed to the DKJS as patrons.

structure

Elke Büdenbender , the wife of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier , has been the organization's patron since 2017 . The shareholders' meeting chaired by Roland Koch (since June 16, 2010) is responsible for the entrepreneurial and strategic decisions of the DKJS. Personalities from politics, science, economy, culture or the media advise the DKJS and its shareholders as honorary members of the foundation board with regard to the content of the work. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Matthias Platzeck. Management is in the Heike Kahl (Chairman) and Frank Hinte.

The DKJS is also represented in all federal states through a network of its own regional offices and regional partners. Since it was founded, it has been part of the international network of the International Youth Foundation. and member of the Federal Association of German Foundations.

The DKJS is a founding member of the initiative group “Entrepreneurship in Schools”, a project of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy .

financing

The programs are largely funded through grants and cooperation agreements. The DKJS currently works with around 100 partners from business, administration, science and civil society. The DKJS also solicits private donations . The income from the limited assets built up in this way are intended to ensure the foundation's economic and funding independence in the long term. An independent auditing company checks the finances and annual financial statements annually.

aims

The DKJS sees itself as a “community action for youth and future”. Its aim is to ensure that young people in Germany can grow up well and experience and learn a democratic culture of togetherness. It develops programs and projects to create suitable educational opportunities for children and young people, with which young people are strengthened and encouraged to take their lives into their own hands. The organization sees it as its task to initiate structural change processes: in kindergartens and schools, during the transition to work, in family or local youth policy. To this end, it brings people from educational practice from schools, daycare centers or youth work, from administration and politics, from science and civil society together and works with them on pressing challenges in the education system.

Principles of work

The organization has set itself the highest principle of starting from the strengths of young people, not from deficits. A fundamental working principle is also to encourage and moderate cooperation between educational actors and institutional areas of responsibility. All foundation programs are evaluated internally or externally.

Programs

With its programs, the DKJS is currently active in the following fields of activity:

  • Early education
  • School success and all-day school
  • Youth and future
  • Educational landscapes

Current focus topics are also:

  • Vocational schools
  • Digital education
  • Young refugees
  • Cultural education

In 2009 the organization implemented 44 programs nationwide, with which it reached a total of over 120,000 children and young people.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Transparency. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  2. ↑ patron. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ↑ Committees. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Matthias Platzeck takes over chairmanship of the foundation board. Retrieved March 4, 2019 .
  6. ↑ https://www.dkjs.de/stiftung/team/
  7. ↑ a b Cf. German Children and Youth Foundation: Yearbook 2009/2010. Berlin 2010, p. 6.
  8. ↑ Entrepreneurship in School: Initiators. Retrieved April 29, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Transparency. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  10. ^ Initiative profile for entrepreneurship in schools. Retrieved April 29, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Vision and Path. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Mission statement. In: www.dkjs.de. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  13. ↑ DKJS (Ed.): "Who we are" Short portrait of the German Children and Youth Foundation . October 2017.