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The two partner regions
With 300,000 inhabitants, Neukölln has the typical population of a smallish big town. In particular Northern Neukölln
was a hotspot of social conflict in the past. At approximately 30%, the share of inhabitants with migration background
out of the total population is exceptionally high. One of the most pressing problems is the education and employment
situation. The current unemployment rate is above 17% (February 2013). Many inhabitants of Neukölln are caught
in the vicious circle of failure at school, general failure and failure at work (if they have a job at all). Unfortunately,
many of them are young persons who then adopt a negative basic attitude and simply resign. This can easily lead to
situations that prevent a stable integration in school, at work and in society.
Graz, Austria’s second largest city, has just below 300,000 inhabitants. Approximately 15.7% of the population are
non-Austrian citizens. These are unevenly distributed between the city’s districts. For instance, the average rate
of foreign citizens in the districts of Gries and Lend almost reaches 30%, and in other districts (e.g. Jakomini and
Eggenberg) there are pockets with a similar concentration of non-Austrians. The resulting problems are above all
apparent in schools. In addition, the unemployment rate of migrants is constantly high. In Graz, approximately 25 of
all % unemployed have a migration background.xx
Starting point
Both partner regions agree that school social work today contributes very importantly to the educational mission of
the schools. In particular, it supports socially disadvantaged and individually disadvantaged young persons as they
progress through school.
After some model projects had been successfully implemented in primary schools, the range of school social work
was greatly extended at all school types in Berlin-Neukölln during the last 12 years. As schools were faced with a high
density of problems of their pupils, they began to seek the co-operation with municipal and independent sponsors
of the youth welfare service and became receptive to intervention offers by school social workers. In addition to
offering tailored advice and support for the learners, school social workers also developed methods to promote
the social competence in specific groups of learners, networked concepts to prevent violence, concepts to create a
direct link with the school, strategies to build bridges between school and the working world, programmes to involve
the parents and much more. During this time, a great diversity in terms of financing models, inclusion of sponsors,
staffing strategies, networking solutions and performance descriptions emerged. This differentiation is partly the
result of the wealth of ideas and the problem-solving competences of public and independent sponsors, but partly
it is simply the consequence of complex administrative responsibilities as no less than three administrative units are
involved on different levels. This is at the same time a challenge and an opportunity.
The situation in Graz / Styria is different. In the capital of the province of Styria, there had been a ten-year pilot
project known as „Schulsozialarbeit-come on“ between 1997 and 2007, and then school social work was relaunched
almost three years ago. The municipality of Graz offers school social work at two school clusters with a total of
four school locations – three schools (primary schools) are additionally supported. Furthermore, the provincial
government finances the Graz South cluster with another three school locations. The state education authority
as the federal authority, Department FA6A of the Styrian government (the provincial youth department) and the
municipal education authority of Graz all have certain competences with regard to school social work. At present,
school social work in Graz is handled – similarly to Berlin – on a project basis under the control of the competent
administrative units.
In practice, school social work in both regions is based on the co-operation between the school authorities, youth
departments and the school itself. As a result, different financing models and scopes of responsibility have emerged.
This in turn requires better harmonization in terms of content, quality standards and expectations. The purpose of
this partnership project is to shed light on the sheer complexity of social work as a result of the great bandwidth
and large number of protagonists involved, and to develop strategies to work efficiently in this special environment.
JoB – The Idea Behind It
