Voluntary social year

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Voluntary Social Year ( FSJ ) is a voluntary social service in Germany and Austria for adolescents and young adults who have completed full-time schooling and have not yet reached the age of 27. In the area of ​​the Protestant Church it is also known as the Diaconal Year . The legal framework for the voluntary social year (FSJ) is regulated in Germany in the Youth Volunteer Service Act (JFDG).

Germany

history

The roots of the Voluntary Social Year can be found in the Protestant and Catholic Church. Hermann Dietzfelbinger , head of the Diakonissenanstalt Neuendettelsau and later regional bishop of Bavaria , called for a voluntary diaconal year in 1954, in the hundredth year of the Diakoniewerk. This call was addressed to young women who would voluntarily provide service to the sick and those in need of care without becoming deaconesses : “You young, healthy people of 18 years, give a year of your life to serve them! ... man doesn't just live from earning. You will have your livelihood and pocket money that you can live on. People are also waiting for you who would like to take you into a community of life from the word, thanks and praise. "

Gertrud Rückert initiated the "Philadelphic Service" for the Augustinum in 1962, also in Bavaria . She wanted to offer high school graduates the opportunity for personal and professional orientation with a voluntary social year before they start studying. At that time it was a completely new concept and a forerunner of the voluntary social year that was later legally anchored in Germany. In 2003 Rückert was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit for her social commitment . On the Catholic side, "the year for the church" has been held since around 1961.

On February 14, 1963, the government factions of the CDU / CSU and FDP introduced a draft law to promote a voluntary social year in the Bundestag. After parliamentary deliberations and a conciliation procedure, the law finally came into force on April 1, 1964. Institutional funding for the voluntary social year has existed for 50 years in 2014. According to the law, young people between 17 and 24 years of age were materially equated with apprentices in the voluntary social year.

Until the suspension of conscription and therefore the civil service in 2011 was to § 14c of the Civil Service Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and the voluntary social year as military service recognized. However, outside of the case of tension or defense , this provision no longer has any practical significance.

Organization of the FSJ

Agency, place of work, financial matters

The FSJ is carried out by an approved provider. Allowed are u. a. Welfare associations, religious communities as well as federal, state and local governments. It is only used at locations that have been previously recognized by the provider. For examples see under Areas and Facilities . Often many deployment sites are coordinated by one agency. In addition to the deployment locations, the provider is often involved in educational, organizational and, in particular, legal aspects.

The basis of the FSJ is a written agreement to be concluded between the provider and the volunteer before the start of the service. The place of assignment can also be involved in the agreement if the place of assignment assumes the cash and non-cash benefits for accommodation, meals, work clothes and pocket money on its own account. Payments by the deployment site to the agency for the placement or accompaniment of the volunteer are often made in the form of a deployment site flat rate . They are not part of this agreement. Social security contributions and contributions for the employers' liability insurance association (BG) / statutory accident insurance are to be paid directly by the deployment site. The place of work incurs monthly costs of around 750 euros for each FSJ student .

The FSJ sponsors are funded by the federal government , in Bavaria also by the state. In 2017, the Bavarian Supreme Court of Auditors found that the institutions that looked after 54% of the FSJ places funded in Bavaria had overfinanced (as of 2013/2014); The income together with the funding from the federal government and the Free State of Bavaria were therefore higher than the expenditure.

Working hours and remuneration

The working time during duty depends on the circumstances of the place of assignment, but is limited by the weekly hourly regulations agreed in public tariffs. Usually there are around 39 hours per week.

The financial remuneration (pocket money, food, accommodation, reimbursement of travel expenses) varies greatly from one agency to another, and rarely between the locations at the same agency. Accommodation and meals, if not provided, are then financially remunerated (placement sites such as kindergartens do not have to offer accommodation or compensation).

The Youth Voluntary Service Act limits the amount of pocket money to a reasonable amount of 6 percent of the contribution assessment limit applicable to general pension insurance (Section 159 of Book Six of the Social Security Code). However, there is no legal claim to remuneration or reimbursement for meals or accommodation.

Entitlement to child benefit and orphan's pensions

During the voluntary service, those under the age of 25 are entitled to receive child benefit according to the Federal Child Benefit Act ( Section 2, Paragraph 2, Clause 1, No. 2d BKGG). The age limit for child benefit is not raised for a period corresponding to the duration of the voluntary social year, as is the case with those doing community service or military service, but the benefit ends when they turn 25.

An orphan's or half-orphan's pension, on the other hand, can be drawn during the voluntary year until the child reaches the age of 27 ( Section 48, Paragraph 4, Clause 1, No. 2 c SGB VI).

Educational support

The Youth Voluntary Service Act provides for educational support for FSJ students, which is provided by the provider. In addition to the individual support of the participants, this particularly includes the seminar work. An introductory seminar, one or two intermediate seminars and a final seminar are held, each of which has a minimum duration of five days and counts among the training days to be completed. The total duration of the seminars and training days during a FSJ is at least 25 days based on a twelve-month FSJ. The seminar time counts as service time and participation in the seminars is compulsory. The FSJ students contribute to the content and implementation of the seminars.

Depending on the area of ​​application and the provider, you may receive any necessary training or advanced training. In the field of sport, this is usually a full trainer training and, for use in the rescue service, training as a rescue worker or paramedic . Depending on the organization, location and length of the FSJ, these training courses are paid proportionally or mostly in full.

Areas and facilities

Logo Voluntary Social Year Culture
Logo Voluntary Social Year Politics
The logo of the FSJ in sport

Possible areas of application are diverse and all social - charitable or non-profit . With the amendment of the FSJ law in 2002, new areas of application were created. It is now possible to complete an FSJ in the areas of culture, sport, politics, monument preservation and, as a model, the FSJ-Digital (from autumn 2015 only in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt).

Specifically, the social year can, for example, be completed in the following institutions. You are not bound to just one of these options, but can also combine several with each other, depending on the location.

  • hospital
  • Retirement and nursing home
  • outpatient social service
  • Monument conservation authority or association
  • Sports club, sports association
  • Kindergarten / day care center
  • Facility for people with a disability (e.g. workshop for the disabled)
  • Medical and rescue service
  • Parish
  • memorial
  • theatre
  • museum
  • Radio / television
  • Cultural associations
  • archive
  • Youth club
  • Juvenile detention in free forms
  • special school
  • All day school
  • Youth fire brigade in the district fire brigade association
  • Sailor missions

and many more.

FSJ digital

Based on the coalition agreement of the current CDU / CSU / SPD government, the FSJ-digital model was introduced in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt in autumn 2015. The model is limited to two years and is implemented in different concepts. While in Rhineland-Palatinate the Rhineland-Palatinate Cultural Office is pursuing a concept that is open to the public, the DRK Landesverband Sachsen-Anhalt eV has set up its own deployment centers where digitization is to take place. The FSJ digitals is based on the paragraph “Digital education and research - fair and innovative” in the coalition agreement. There it says: “We are in favor of a“ model project Voluntary Social Year Digital ”so that young people can use their technical skills and abilities in handling and using new media to serve non-profit organizations and use them in the implementation of digital projects and the Support communication of media skills. “On January 25, 2016, the FSJ_digital in Rhineland-Palatinate was officially opened by Federal Labor Minister Andrea Nahles and Prime Minister Malu Dreyer .

Legal

Duration

The voluntary social year lasts at least 6 and at most 18 months. The service can exceptionally last up to 24 months if this is justified within the framework of a special educational concept. If a voluntary social year is initially completed for less than 18 months, it can be extended to 15 months (in the case of a deployment in Germany) with the consent of the provider of the voluntary social year. The voluntary social year can also be completed abroad. However, since compulsory military service was suspended for the FSJ abroad, there is no longer any federal funding. Until then, it was possible to do the FSJ Abroad as alternative military service. Instead, the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth has launched a new international youth voluntary service .

The beginning is determined by the respective sponsors. The starting times are usually between August and October of each year. Some carriers offer the possibility of lateral entry.

Education days

The sponsors of a voluntary social year are obliged by the Voluntary Service Act to provide the volunteers with at least 25 educational days during a 12-month service, which the volunteer must complete in order for the voluntary service to meet the requirements for an educational year. Depending on the time spent in the voluntary service, it is also possible to complete more or fewer training days. According to the Voluntary Service Act, volunteers are obliged to take part in the training days.

Social security and retirement provision

Those who complete a voluntary social year receive insurance cover for illness and care. According to Social Code IV, the agency (or the place of assignment) pays the full costs for social insurance (employee and employer share). The time of the voluntary social year is taken into account for the old-age provision (compulsory insurance in the statutory pension insurance). The volunteers have a similar legal status to trainees.

New legal basis

Since June 1, 2008, the regulations have been found together with those of the Voluntary Ecological Year in the Law for the Promotion of Youth Voluntary Services (JFDG). Unless the application of the new law for the employment relationships existing at the time was mutually agreed, the old law on the promotion of a voluntary social year continued to apply to them.

Austria

The voluntary social year or the Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) in Austria is very similar in Germany in many areas. It has been offered by the “Association for the Promotion of Voluntary Social Services” since 1968 and is regulated in the Volunteer Act. The association has its seat in Vienna and its secretariat in Linz . Regional offices are located in Graz , Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg .

During an FSJ assignment, young people work for ten to twelve months in a social institution in Austria. The areas of application are working with people with disabilities, the elderly, children or young people or in another area, such as working with homeless people.

The weekly working time of the young people is 34 hours. Since 2016 it has been possible for men to do the FSJ instead of community service , at the sometimes better conditions of the FSJ and, in contrast to nine-month community service, can be postponed until the age of 28. For their work, the FSJ participants receive monthly pocket money of 390.00 euros net (as of 2016). There is also the option of receiving family allowance, provided that the eligibility requirements are met. Free accommodation or reimbursement of travel expenses for public transport (if no accommodation is available) will be provided. Free, accompanying seminars for reflecting on the mission and for further training are also among the services that the FSJ offers its participants.

Extraordinary FSJ

Analogous to " extraordinary community service ", there is the possibility of doing an "extraordinary FSJ" in times of crisis. It is open to all women and men who have already completed an FSJ for a period of one to nine months. The working hours, positions, pocket money and insurance correspond to the conditions of the regular FSJ.

Similar services

literature

  • Christine G. Krüger: Service ethos, thirst for adventure, civic duty. Youth voluntary services in Germany and Great Britain in the 20th century ( Critical Studies on History , Vol. 219), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-525-37046-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from: epd documentation 4/2011 page 13ff
  2. ^ Voluntary social year in the Augustinum - Philadelphischer Ring
  3. ^ Written report by the Committee on Family and Youth Issues (10th Committee) on the draft of a law for the promotion of a voluntary social year brought in by the parliamentary groups of the CDU / CSU, FDP, Bundestag printed matter IV / 2138, page 1
  4. ↑ Bundestag printed matter IV / 986
  5. ↑ See Bundestag printed paper IV / 2138
  6. ↑ See Bundestag printed matter IV / 2250 and IV / 2296
  7. ↑ Law for the Promotion of a Voluntary Social Year of August 17, 1964, Federal Law Gazette I. page 640
  8. ↑ Guide for deployment sites, FSD Archdiocese of Cologne, 2018
  9. ↑ Bavarian Supreme Court of Auditors: Annual Report 2017 part no. 40
  10. ↑ official page on FSJ culture
  11. ↑ official page for FSJ sport
  12. ^ FSJ policy in Saxony ( Memento from October 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) May 20, 2008
  13. ^ FSJ policy in Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt
  14. ^ FSJ policy in Lower Saxony
  15. ^ FSJ policy in Rhineland-Palatinate
  16. ↑ FSJ in the preservation of monuments / youth building huts (a joint project of the German Foundation for Monument Protection and the International Youth Community Services (ijgd))
  17. ^ Page on the FSJ in juvenile detention in free forms
  18. ↑ official page for the FSJ all-day school
  19. ↑ Voluntary service with seafarers from all over the world. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Who can take part in #FSJ_digital? . Project homepage FSJ_digital of the Kulturbüro Rheinland-Pfalz. , accessed September 16, 2015.
  21. ^ Official website of the FSJ digital of the DRK Saxony-Anhalt , accessed on September 16, 2015
  22. ^ Coalition agreement for the 18th parliamentary term between the CDU, CSU and SPD . Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), December 14, 2013, accessed on May 7, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Report on the opening event FSJ_digital . Rhein-Zeitung report of January 26th, 2016 , accessed on February 1st, 2016.
  24. ↑ Funding for the FSJ abroad
  25. ^ International voluntary service of the BMFSFJ , accessed on January 10, 2012
  26. ↑ Voluntary service in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart non-profit GmbH - Voluntary social year: start, duration and deadlines Frequently asked questions about the FSJ
  27. ↑ Kristin Kruthaup: Still without an apprenticeship position - What options remain now , Nordwest-Zeitung online, October 19, 2015
  28. ↑ § 5, Paragraph 2 JFDG. (PDF) In: Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. Federal Ministry of Justice, accessed on September 4, 2016 .
  29. ↑ Health insurance and social insurance in the FSJ. . Association for social life e. V., December 2018.
  30. ↑ The voluntary social year - now also at Volkshilfe Wien at www.sozialesjahr.at ( Memento from November 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ www.sozialesjahr.at: Information sheet for people obliged to do community service - Voluntary social year as an alternative
  32. ↑ https://www.samariterbund.net/jugend/freiwilliges-sozialjahr/