Strukturentwicklung

From 2015 to 2019, Cultures Interactive received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as part of the “Demokratie leben!” federal program for structural development and implemented various measures to prevent right-wing extremism, racism and group-focused enmity in youth work and youth welfare.

Civil society youth cultural work as a building block of primary and secondary prevention

Cultures Interactive has developed an effective approach for working with young people using the approach of civil society youth cultural work. In this way, it is possible to reach adolescents from different backgrounds and strengthen democratic participation and attitudes based on human rights. Socio-political issues such as racism, exclusion, social justice and gender roles can be reflected close to the interests of young people. The self-image of “do-it-yourself” encourages creativity and personal commitment. Peer learning formats and the credo of passing on one's own youth cultural skills to others are also strong solidarity resources among young people that cultures interactive works with.

In order to counter group-based misanthropy, right-wing extremism and religiously motivated radicalization in a way that is appropriate for young people, Cultures Interactive established regional networks of human rights-oriented youth cultural work throughout Germany in cooperation with local stakeholders between 2015 and 2019.

To this end:

• Cultures Interactive taught methods and formats of the civil society youth culture approach in train-the-trainer courses,
• Cultures Interactive accompanied and advised actors nationwide in the structural field of youth work and youth welfare,
• offered Cultures Interactive training courses for (social) education professionals in youth facilities, schools, local authorities and universities,
• developed, tested and evaluated new methods and formats,
• provided nationwide impetus through youth culture workshops, vacation camps and project days to reduce prejudice, strengthen democratic structures in youth work, empower disadvantaged young people and address topics such as inclusion, gender, flight and migration.

Qualification and support for team leaders

In order to disseminate nationwide offers of civil society youth cultural work, suitable multipliers were trained and professionally supported in train-the-trainer courses. Method manuals were continuously developed and made available for this purpose. In order to further establish regionally deployable teams in Germany, Cultures Interactive cooperated with youth associations and initiatives in various federal states and supported them in anchoring new offers for strengthening democracy and human rights education for their target groups in the respective structures.

Advice and training for youth work and youth welfare professionals

Cultures Interactive offered individual consultations for open and outreach youth work institutions, youth welfare facilities and youth associations and contributed its expertise on the potential of human rights-oriented youth cultural work, the phenomena of group-based enmity, right-wing extremism, radicalization processes and prevention approaches in expert panels and conferences.

The skills of youth and social work specialists, students and employees from schools, daycare centers, the police and administration were strengthened in various training courses - from one-day to modular qualification series.

Further development and transfer of prevention work services

Cultures Interactive is committed to the development and creation of new prevention work. Through cooperation with other specialist organizations, methods and pedagogical approaches have been further developed and taught in internal and external training courses for multipliers. As a result, team leaders across Germany were trained on topics that youth culture work is currently confronted with: racist movements from the middle-class milieu in alliance with right-wing extremists, work with refugees, Islamophobia and militant Islamist movements, etc. In addition to their own approaches, promising approaches from international project partners for youth and community work in Germany were also introduced and the prevention approaches of Cultures Interactive were also transferred to other countries.

Youth culture workshops

As part of the structural development, Cultures Interactive also implemented offers for adolescents, including in youth clubs, residential youth welfare facilities, schools, accommodation for refugees and at festivals. Political education geared towards the real world is combined with youth culture workshops. By implementing exemplary youth cultural work measures to address current socio-political issues, Cultures Interactive supported regional youth work and provided important impetus in various regions. Local youth work stakeholders were able to benefit sustainably from the initiated processes. Participatory offers for young people and their adult environment included workshops, project days, open spaces, future workshops, peer-to-peer training, social space inspections, situation assessments with regard to inhuman attitudes and violence, as well as resource analyses for the respective environment.