Youth counseling JOKER

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'JOKER' was a nationally known concept - youth advice center for 13 to 21 year olds with several branch offices in the West Berlin city ​​center. The central location enabled young people from Charlottenburg , Neukölln , Schöneberg and Wilmersdorf to request unorthodox emergency aid. The JOKER youth counseling facility existed from 1983, so named by the long-time manager of the approach, Manfred Günther, until 2006. The forerunner was the small "Wilmersdorf youth counseling" from 1977–1982.

'JOKER' concepts 1985–2000

history

1977 to 1982

In 1976, the Wilmersdorf Youth Welfare Committee decided to set up a youth counseling center for the difficult, violent and unemployed young people who fight in multicultural gangs . a. frequented the leisure centers Spirale and Haus der Jugend Anne Frank . The statistics of the local juvenile court assistance caused fears in a wealthy community, which also includes Grunewald and Kurfürstendamm . The provisional work began in 1977 in a vacant caretaker's apartment in the “Anne Frank” youth center; two consultants on half-fee positions started. The work took place on four evenings, also during the youth disco. At that time there were only three comparable projects in Germany in Munich , in Hanover and that of the AJB in Berlin-Kreuzberg .

The 1983–1990

Under pressure from the Alternative List Berlin and the SPD and with the funds of the Youth City Council Siele ( CDU ), two full fee positions were created in 1982. Already in 1983 this is that permanent positions reached for a psychologist and a diploma made pedagogues. In addition to the rooms in the branch of the youth center, the 'JOKER' were integrated in 1983 into the newly created advice center, a citizen-oriented first floor in the central building at Hohenzollerndamm / Fehrbelliner Platz . Now the youth counseling service was “established” as an independent and non-record-keeping official institution alongside relevant services such as child and adolescent psychiatry , educational and family counseling and school psychology . In the eyes of other youth welfare teams, the 'JOKER' appeared to be a model experiment to optimize outpatient support for teenagers, and because of the consistent pursuit of outpatient and outreach work, there was deliberately no mention of a counseling center .

An attempt by 'JOKER' to set up a similar position in the problematic district of Wedding with the help of the Diakonische Akademie Stuttgart (Die Spider) failed after two years due to a lack of funding. The concept development, the personnel expansion and the facility management were carried out from 1985 to 1999 by Manfred Günther ; During this time, up to five specialists worked in the team; there were also freelance workers and supervisors in the "Mosse" residential project.

1987 marked the 750th anniversary of Berlin . A conference on "Poverty and homelessness in the 750." took, JOKER 'as an opportunity to work with a Kreuzberg colleagues cooperative Berlin working group "Youth counseling and housing to found" a very early networking approach that the merger of about 20 projects of free carriers with another 15 public sponsors . The AK worked regularly until it was banned in 2003 through local supervisors and the regional youth welfare office manager.

1990–2000: turning point and administrative reform

The political turnaround initially called on the 'JOKER' to set up comparable facilities for youth welfare, e.g. B. to design and coach in Friedrichshain . The years 1997 to 1999 were also marked by structural changes in the Berlin administration. Administrative reform , product orientation , budgeting and , in the future , district amalgamations to contain costs , put conceptual approaches on the defensive. Also, SGB ​​VIII Child and Youth Welfare from 1991 in its § 11 (3) 6th only fixed youth counseling as an “optional service ”. From the point of view of the then incumbent CDU city councilor El Safadi, it was only logical to want to handle youth counseling JOKER as an independent project within the public service . First, the independence from the youth welfare office was lifted in 1996 , the youth counseling service became part of the performance and responsibility center (a LuV with over 50 specialists) "Psychological and Medical Services", a 'JOKER' Günther became vice-LuV-director. In 1999 there was already a significant reduction in jobs, which took on radical forms as a result of the district administration reform in 2000. The youth political press service Paper Press dedicated an entire issue to the scandal under the title Russian Roulette in Wilmersdorf or The Joker Case . The head was transferred to a staff unit "Coordination of youth welfare schools" and after the Erfurt rampage in 2003 , he switched to the joint crime prevention department of the Justice and Interior Ministry , Bonn / Berlin, as an expert writer and BAG moderator . A so-called youth counseling service JOKER in the district EFB could be continued with a permanent position until 2006 in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf .

From 2001 in Berlin, the new voluntary association of the Berlin Legal Aid Fund for Youth Welfare also took over the consistent advocacy approach including legal advice (see ombudsman ) .

Theory, conception

Comprehensive, internally published concepts were available in 1984, 1993 and, when the JOKER 2000 future plan was rejected by the department head and her office manager (both CDU) in 1999 . The 'JOKER' campaigned early on for a regionalization of youth work as well as educational assistance and for small, decentralized youth welfare stations .

At the beginning, the work of the consultants was clearly interwoven with the findings of critical psychology . The starting point was positions that were initially defined by Klaus Stern and Georg Haus, later Manfred Günther, in the counseling center as well as Uwe Gluntz and Dave Harris - at that time managing directors of the General Youth Counseling in Berlin - in the slogan "Orientation aid instead of therapy ". The approach implied that not social workers act as helpers as usual, but additionally trained psychologists, sociologists and educators. The team members also “critically” followed the results of the SHELL studies and the relevant government reports .

The youth reports as guidelines for action

"Since the 5th YOUTH REPORT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT of 1979, the interested professional public has known the reasons for the establishment of special general youth advice centers, which are to move in the field of youth work as well as in the spectrum of psychosocial crisis services . The 8th YOUTH REPORT of 1990 names the working approaches and structural features of contemporary and needs-based youth counseling that we have always practiced to a large extent. Our 'quality indicators' are:

  • Life world and everyday life orientation
  • preventive work approach
  • regional, preferably local aid networks (decentralized in large districts)
  • holistic offer
  • Integration instead of separation
  • Regular counseling integrates family conflicts, work and housing problems
  • Participation and codetermination for minors in decisions
  • Association of contact and advice centers with mobile contacts in the community
  • intensive work also with adolescents
  • practical supportive youth welfare service, especially for " dark figure youth "
  • Follow-up care even for people over 20 "
- Quote from the framework concept from 1992

Working principles in counseling

For other approaches, experiments and projects in young West German counseling centers, in addition to the eleven indicators (above), the eight Basics from West Berlin served as models and role models:

Residential group 18–21 (the 'Mosse')
  • Outreach, outreach help instead of "come structure"
  • Low-threshold access, immediate aid
  • Office hours in the afternoons and evenings
  • Practical help, specific offers
  • Partiality
  • Anonymity, secrecy
  • Voluntariness
  • Development support instead of psychotherapy

Standards and special offers

The youth counseling service 'JOKER' intervened holistically in almost all problem areas that affected young people; a specialization was rejected. In the case of complex psychiatric issues such as anorexia, we cooperated with specialists from the plane tree / FU (after 1986, for example, with Fegert ), and when it came to addictive substances, we cooperated with the Therapieladen e. V. and in suicide prevention with Neuhland e. V. Mental, existential and material problems were dealt with. The focus of advice was job and apprenticeship search , help with school conflicts, finding places in (youth) shared apartments, help with applying for social benefits, relationship conflicts in the family and mediation on request, sexuality and the like. Pregnancy issues , foreigner / migrant advice also in Turkish as well as support for girls / consultation hours in the girls' leisure home ; In addition, there were special instruments such as the “unemployed breakfast”. Every year the legal education instruction took place in the 9th grade of the secondary, comprehensive and secondary schools. The approach of (voluntary) development support and the regular consultation hours in the youth houses generated considerable demand: in the years 1983–1998 around 6,000 young people visited the office. Some of them were able to receive funding from the Leon Jessel Foundation.

Another special was the placement in the group driving license project (class 3), a cooperation project with the TU Berlin for 17 to 20 year olds.

Adolescent work

After the age of majority was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1975, numerous adolescents fell into a care hole : the youth welfare office rejected this group of people because the responsibility lay with the social welfare offices ; their Social housing assistance but was older vagrants aligned. The youth counseling service 'JOKER' advertised this group of people and helped with complicated legal issues. Your advisors appeared again and again in youth welfare conferences as a representative and person of trust according to § 5 (1) AG-KJHG Berlin of the apparently unlawful.

Housing project

In 1990 a long-planned supplementary offer was opened: the 'JOKER' residential project for adolescents. With only one care center, up to eleven young people could now be accommodated for a maximum of one year and possibly in short-term crisis accommodation on one floor of the former Mosse -Stift dormitory . In the first two years, 57 homeless people were helped. In 1996 the project was handed over to the independent organization Evangelisches Klubheim für Arbeitstätige eV .

Youth rights advice

What was really unique in Germany was the range of legal advice in connection with psychosocial advice that was founded in 1978. For 28 years, the 'JOKER' managed to bring qualified lawyers into the counseling practice for two evenings a week together with the Association of Berlin Criminal Defense Lawyers - free of charge for 13 to 21 year olds. Currently (as of 2012) the defense lawyers offer objective, non-pedagogical advice in the youth leisure centers in Wedding and in the Manege Rütlistraße . The Berlin Lawyers' Association is also continuing the 'JOKER' idea with free, qualified advice on youth law.

Collegial cooperation

Employee

The multi-professional team included Peter Zielke (specialization: cooperation with youth work facilities and the management of youth development, youth professional assistance, debtor issues), Manfred Günther (educational and psychological advice, school problems, SGB VIII issues) and Lilo Sudfeld (work with girls and boys Women, housing and rental issues, help for young German-Turks and much more). The development-accompanying youth rights advice for the Berlin city center was carried out by prominent lawyers like Jutta Wagner .

Guests

Numerous socio-educational specialists from the German federal states came to the advice center to inspect the concept, the working method and the rooms. Visitors from abroad came from the Helsinki family counseling service and the Békéscsaba children's home . Prominent guests such as the University of Applied Sciences professors Peter Weiß and Elke Stark-von der Haar helped to support the project .

Memberships

Specialist lectures

As a novel project, the 'JOKER' were invited by the West Berlin preparation group to give a lecture on the 7th German Youth Welfare Day of the AGJ in 1984 in Bremen. At the 9th German Youth Welfare Day in Hamburg in 1992, they presented themselves on the market of possibilities with a material and discussion stand.

In the Heinrich Böll Foundation , the head of youth counseling 'JOKER' organized a symposium in 1988 on help for young adults ; The ex-Senator for Youth, Family and Sport Ilse Reichel-Koß and the TU youth welfare lawyer Johannes Münder gave a talk on the podium .

Products

Around 1996, 'JOKERs' pocket money table appeared for the first time and was given to all youth welfare offices and all recognized independent organizations of youth welfare in Berlin. In contrast to the traditional list of savings banks, it shows a grading not according to age but according to school class. It is continued by the author to this day and was presented on September 19, 2012 in the ZDF morning magazine.

advertising

"Help! I am hopeless and quite disoriented, completely listless, the relationship is gone, penniless, right and homeless, really stupid, super merciless - who knows a perspective? "

This is what it said on the annual calendars published by the youth advice service 'JOKER' since 1982, which were distributed in large numbers. The answer (as a popular saying) was:

"If nothing works anymore, come to JOKER - good advice is free"

The Berlin caricaturist Stuttmann was responsible for the illustrations in the calendar and concepts as well as for the logo , and Ernst Volland was involved.

Locations

The youth counselors were stationed at various central and decentralized locations, such as the “Anne Frank” youth house, the “Spirale” youth center, the youth club in the education center , the Hohenzollerndamm advisory center , Rudolf- and Emilie-Mosse Stift, the girls' meeting on Düsseldorfer Strasse and the Pestalozzistrasse location.

public perception

On May 24, 1988, the 'JOKER' organized a two-day apprenticeship exchange with the support of Elke von der Haar. The youth advisors helped numerous disoriented people with advice, accompanied by roundtables, a buffet, tombola and disco.

On the tenth birthday, numerous specialist colleagues, Berlin institutions, services, university lecturers and politicians as well as John Peel congratulated him. During this work phase , the 'JOKER' were often guests at the SFB Beat and in the SFB Wednesday forums. On the 15th birthday, the advertising newspaper Wochenblatt congratulated and interviewed an employee. After the 20th anniversary in 1998, a feature on the program Gulliver - Sentences and Opposites on SFB 3 dealt with the extraordinary facility for one hour.

literature

  • Youth Counseling - A report from three years of experience. (Klaus Stern and Helmut Gürtler, pp. 105–111) Verlag AJB, Berlin 1977.
  • Manfred Günther: Psycho-social effects of unemployment on young people. In: Youth, Profession, Society. 4/1981, pp. 181-188.
  • Peter Zielke: Youth counseling in the leisure home. In: New circular 3/1981, pp. 12–15.
  • Manfred Günther, Lilo Sudfeld: youth counseling as unbureaucratic orientation aid. In: Social Pedagogy, 1/1987.
  • Thomas Gojny, Manfred Günther, Gaby Maranca: Services for young adults. In: Jugendhilfe 5/1996, pp. 44–49.
  • Manfred Günther: What actually is youth counseling - a must or just a luxury? Part I In: Heim Erzieher magazine H 1/1999; Part II there, issue 2/1999.
  • Elke von der Haar: Jugendberatung Neuwied 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Berliner Morgenpost : Two took up the fight against juvenile delinquency and drugs , November 15, 1979
  2. ↑ Two underground lines and the Ring-S-Bahn crossed "on the doorstep"
  3. ↑ cf. Wilmersdorf youth counseling center Message from the President No. 202, printed matter 7/1582 of the Berlin House of Representatives
  4. ↑ See avoiding conflict situations. Working method of the youth counseling center Wilmersdorf ; in: Blickpunkt , July 20, 1978, pp. 51-55
  5. ↑ Cf. Selected items from the youth policy kitchen of the CDU , Wilmersdorfer Stachel vol. 3, June 5, 1982
  6. ↑ Cf. Werner Kleist: Where is the journey with Lummer and Laurien going ? In: Berlin Voice , 1/1981
  7. ↑ In: Instead of Book 4 , July 1984
  8. ↑ cf. Paper Press No. 324, Volume 25, March 13, 2000
  9. ↑ The three historical 'JOKER' concepts, seen on September 19, 2012 at www.mg-joker.de (PDF; 174 kB)
  10. ↑ AJB support structure
  11. ↑ See youth counseling and help with morning pint . In: Berliner Morgenpost , October 15, 1986
  12. ↑ Cf. Manfred Günther: Help for young adults according to SGB VIII § 41 in: Jugendhilfe 8/1993
  13. ↑ cf. Christel Seiffert: Joker offers young people a place to stay. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 24, 1993
  14. ↑ Reference to two legal advice services for students
  15. ^ Advice on youth rights on the Chamber's website , ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on September 19, 2012
  16. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel about the branch
  17. ↑ See Berliner Zeitung , May 24, 1988
  18. ^ Note in the Berliner Morgenpost from May 4, 1988
  19. ^ Report in the Bild newspaper , May 25, 1988
  20. ↑ See: Berlin's only mobile youth counseling service is celebrating its tenth anniversary: ​​JOKER quickly helps young people in need out of a jam . In: Berliner Morgenpost , February 18, 1987
  21. ↑ Cf. Volksblatt Berlin , February 21, 1987: The young people fought for the Wilmersdorf advice center
  22. ↑ See: Wochenblatt Wilmersdorf No. 19, October 31, 1991

Coordinates: 52 ° 29'25.3 "  N , 13 ° 18'51.8"  E