Field Visits

Unique in Germany: This youth job centre provides career advice of all kinds to young people under 25.

Jugendjobcenter is a central port of call for all matters relating to career choice, career counselling, and vocational training and job placements. School students in search of a vocational training course or apprenticeship, unemployed adolescents and young adults, and young people who are threatened by unemployment – Jugendjobcenter serves them all. It also advises school students who are about to leave school without a formal qualification as well as young people undergoing preparatory vocational training.

Youth workshop JBH provides young people with low-threshold access to the labour market.

Jugendwerkstatt JBH seeks to place young unemployed people in jobs and training/apprenticeships. Nine modern and well-equipped training facilities across Düsseldorf, known as Jugendwerkstätten (youth workshops), support young people under the age of 25 as they undergo various vocational training courses.

Düsseldorf is the only major city to provide funding for school social work in all primary schools – a preventive programme that serves children from a young age.

Visit a Catholic primary school and learn about Düsseldorf’s close cooperation between child and youth welfare services and schools. This cooperation makes it possible to provide support to all children and adolescents very early on, and functions as an interface to a broader support system.

Find out more about Düsseldorf’s support programme for adolescents in danger of dropping out of school.

The anti-truancy project, run according to the so-called "Rath model" in cooperation with the city of Düsseldorf’s truancy unit, is aimed at school students aged 14 or over (grade 8 or above) who miss more than 50% of school. Off the school premises, school students are assisted in re-acquiring a daily routine and gaining an educational qualification. They are provided with personalised support that encourages them to open up to social and cognitive learning, acquire basic academic knowledge, integrate in society and explore possible career options.

Eller adventure playground is a special educational playground that invites children to explore and play without constant supervision.

For children who grow up in large cities, adventure playgrounds are a place where they can actively explore their surroundings and re-shape the terrain using the material on site as they see fit. This responds to children’s natural ability to embrace and enjoy risky situations.

Meet the highly motivated teamers of Z4 - the modern youth recreation centre in a deprived area of the city whose concept is largely based on sports social work.

The centre is open every evening from Monday to Saturday and welcomes adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 27. It offers fitness and boxing classes as well as karate, football and various exercise classes for adolescents and young women and men.

The youth recreation centre Kinderspielhaus offers cultural education activities

Kinderspielhaus (children’s play house) is aimed at children and adolescents aged 6 to 14. In a building with a 500 sqm playroom plus a stage and gallery, the facility offers educational activities that mainly relate to media and child and youth culture, including daily art, crafts and design classes, video projects, and dance, drama and music workshops.

Colourful and lively: Kiefernstrasse child recreation centre works with street art and open space design.

Welcome to Düsseldorf’s multicultural scene: Kiefernstrasse is home to 800 residents from 45 different nationalities with a wide variety of social backgrounds. The Kiefernstrasse recreation centre for children is located in one of the residential buildings that were occupied by squatters in the 1980s. Extending over a length of 200 m along the street, this row of houses has been redesigned using street art. The centre’s cultural activities mainly focus on street art as well and are aimed largely at children and adolescents aged 6 to 15.

Take a look inside a youth recreation centre that demonstrates the importance of networking among social work providers such as school social work and afternoon extracurricular activities.

Located near Düsseldorf’s main railway station, V24 serves children, adolescents and young adults aged 6 to 27 from 39 different countries. The activities it offers are designed to fit the needs of this target group. V24 is part of a close-knit network of various child and youth welfare providers, schools and vocational assistance providers.

Come and find out a highly popular youth centre for the LGBTG+ community in the heart of the city.

Puls is Düsseldorf’s youth centre for members of the young LGBTG+ community: a discrimination- and stress-free zone where staff are on hand to listen to any questions or problems. But Puls is not just a place to hang out and chat; the centre also runs high-profile campaigns and reaches out to the wider public through its anti-discrimination activities.

City squares are often not the most salubrious areas where conflicting interests collide. Especially young people at risk of violence and addiction tend to congregate here.

At Düsseldorf’s Lessingplatz (Lessing square), the city’s youth welfare office has taken a two-pronged approach to resolve issues: one, a scheme involving residents who run a small community centre and two, a sports project managed in cooperation with Rheinflanke, an independent organisation

Solution wanted: In many inner-city squares, conflicting interests collide; also, they are frequently a place where people suffering from violence or addiction, for instance, congregate.

At Stadtwerkepark Flingern, an outreach “culturemobile” has been installed which uses a cultural education approach to reach out to children and adolescents.

Explore a mobile educational scheme providing language-centred educational activities for children.

The Mobile School van offers educational games to teach children everyday facts and provide them with an answer to any urgent questions they may have relating to everyday life. As it is quite compact, the van can be installed on pavements, squares and parks anywhere across the city.

Kinderhilfezentrum (Youth welfare centre) run by the city of Düsseldorf’s youth welfare office is an example of assistance for parents in raising their children.

Kinderhilfezentrum helps in situations where parents are no longer able to provide sufficient care to their children for personal or social reasons, or when the development and health of children are in jeopardy. For instance, it responds rapidly and unbureaucratically when children require emergency shelter and also maintains a number of residential groups for children who cannot remain in the family home. In addition, Kinderhilfezentrum offers support to families while they either move into so-called “training apartments” or remain in their own homes.

Jugendring Düsseldorf, that’s where youth associations, youth groups and youth initiatives in the city built a cooperation.

Jugendring represents the concerns and interests of young city residents and serves as a lobby for children and adolescents. Most of the work in the youth associations is done by trained volunteers who organise a large variety of recreational activities for children and adolescents, such as regular group meetings, holiday camps, educational activities and projects..

Join us at Flair Familie, a port of call in all matters relating to raising children in this part of town.

Using an integrated concept spanning child and youth welfare, child daycare and family education, Flair Familie’s activities are targeted at children and adolescents aged 6 and over and their families. The centre is a meeting place for multinational groups and encourages intercultural dialogue through media and nutrition projects. Family-centred activities include exercise classes for parents and children, a meeting place for childminders, and a “language café” which helps mothers from the immigrant community to learn German.

Debate with Düsseldorf’s elected youth parliament which is an example of youth participation.

The Jugendrat (youth council) officially represents the interests of children and adolescents in Düsseldorf. It consists of 31 elected members who can take part in an advisory capacity in municipal committees and district representation bodies. They attend youth council meetings where they discuss inquiries and motions submitted to the political and administrative level. The youth council also runs projects and campaigns on its own choice of themes.

Meet the social workers at Knackpunkt, a centre for young prostitutes in the area around the main railway station.

Knackpunkt is a youth welfare centre that reaches out to underage girls and young women under 27 who are essentially homeless, mostly addicted to drugs and engage in drug-related prostitution. Its concept is based around the acceptance of their living situations. Knackpunkt is a low-threshold provider of assistance and an easy-access port of call where girls and young women can take refuge and receive help and counselling while remaining anonymous.

Learn more about a prevention scheme to combat Salafism and other extreme Islamist movements in Düsseldorf.

Wegweiser provides detailed information on violent Neosalafism and seeks to prevent radicalisation. Specifically, Wegweiser offers information events, initiates and implements clearing processes, designs and implements educational and educational intervention formats and runs a telephone helpline.