HaKo_ReJu

Social workers and educators are still not equipped with enough tools to appropriately counter inhumane, anti-democratic statements. With the HaKoReJu pilot project, Cultures Interactive therefore wanted to support youth workers in systematically implementing the youth welfare mandate of political education in their field of work.

The aim was to develop an action plan for a targeted approach in (open) educational work with young people with an affinity to the right. Based on the latest experiences from different social areas in the eastern German federal states and scientific findings as well as European best practice research on the prevention of extremism, a modular qualification series was developed and installed as a permanent offer. The target group for this qualification was employees of open youth work in youth facilities, street work and other educational areas. In the course of the project process, non-right-wing young people were also empowered with suitable youth cultural offers.

From needs analysis to qualification: the work steps

1. Needs Analysis

Through individual interviews and moderated group discussions with cooperation partners from open youth work in Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia as well as with other experts from civil society initiatives in the federal states, the specific problems that practitioners are confronted with were compiled. What manifestations of right-wing affinity are there? Where is the transition to right-wing extremism? What verbal and non-verbal forms of expression, and possibly also youth cultural localizations, currently exist? What are the family and community backgrounds? Academics from the fields of social work and education, gender research and right-wing extremism, political science, social psychology and prejudice research supplemented the practical experience with specialist expertise.

2. Action Plan

Based on the results of this interdisciplinary expertise, we developed an action plan for working with young people with an affinity to the right, taking into account the respective requirements of the practice centers. Local, milieu and gender-specific characteristics were taken into account and combined with basic elements such as human rights and prejudice-sensitive pedagogy, learning democracy, promoting self-efficacy and participation.

3. Modular Qualification Series

A series of training courses for multipliers in educational work was developed in parallel to the action plan. These were strengthened in their own pedagogical attitude in their specific working environment. In addition, the qualification is structured in such a way that the participants can then pass on the content and methods to their colleagues themselves. The process is based on the “Fair Skills” approach developed by Cultures Interactive.