The European Social Fund (ESF) managing authority at the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) implements ESF-co-financed BMFSFJ federal programmes that receive a total of €300 million in funding.
The ESF managing authority is supported by the ARGE ESF Regiestelle; its partners are Stiftung Sozialpädagogisches Institut Walter May in Berlin (practical programme guidance) and gsub – Gesellschaft für soziale Unternehmensberatung mbH (financial fund management).
The programmes are administered under the following headings:
- The youth social work programmes “Truancy – A Second Chance” and “Competence Agencies”
- The “ENCOURAGING THE YOUTH: active in the region” pilot programme
- Local SUPPORT
- Prospects for Re-entering Employment
- Child Day-Care action programme
- Company-Supported Childcare
- MORE men in children’s day care facilities
Programme summaries:
SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE – youth social work
With its “Supporting Young People” initiative, which includes the programmes “Truancy – A Second Chance”, “Competence Agencies”, “Local SUPPORT” and “SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE: Active in the Region”, the BMFSFJ is tackling the challenges that socially or otherwise disadvantaged young people face when making the transition from school to employment.
The coordinating bodies set up for “Truancy – A Second Chance” identify young people who either actively play truant or otherwise refuse to engage themselves in class and provide the necessary support to reintegrate them into the regular school system, with the ultimate aim of ensuring their access to employment opportunities.
The “Competence Agencies” programme implements individual social-pedagogical measures targeting young people who either do not benefit from the existing system of support for making the transition from school to employment, or who fail to seek such support on their own, with the aim of helping to integrate these young people into the world of employment.
Both programmes will be supervised by the ESF managing authority until 31 August 2011.
The “ENCOURAGING YOUTH: active in the region” pilot programme
The pilot programme continues the SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE initiative and its programmes with the aim of strengthening community structures for youth support issues.
At 36 selected pilot locations, the programme aims to establish what conditions a municipality should set in place to strengthen its long-term youth policy in relation to §13 Youth Social Work (SGB VIII).
In these selected cities and districts, the programme aims to create a tailored and comprehensive system of local support for young people when they make the transition from school into apprenticeships or employment, to prevent them “slipping off the radar”. Youth authorities must create suitable and, above all, binding structures and conditions to consolidate the jurisdictions of schools, youth authorities, Jobcenters, the Federal Employment Agency and other service providers as necessary. To create a long-term solution, the municipality is responsible for ensuring that the new range of services for young people is still provided after the funding comes to an end.
Local SUPPORT
The “Local SUPPORT” programme provides micro-projects with up to €10,000 in funding in order to target those who are difficult to reach through mainstream ESF funding or other target-group-specific schemes. It aims to improve the social, educational and professional integration of young people with poor prospects and to help women who are experiencing problems entering or re-entering the labour market. The programme is implemented separately in the respective funding areas by local coordinating bodies and local networks. Small-scale local initiatives and organisations that promote inclusion of these target groups are eligible for micro-grants of up to €10,000. This has the effect of strengthening local commitment and civil-society structures over the long term. The programme ends on 31 December 2011.
Prospects for Re-entering Employment
The action programme “Prospects for Re-entering Employment” aids support organisations in paving the way for women who wish to return to work after having taken time out from their careers to care for children at home.
With a view to developing best practices, those involved in guidance, training, industry and employment at local level work together to initiate and promote support and relief schemes to foster the reintegration process.
The programme aims to encourage all those involved to explore new approaches.
Child Day-Care
The BMFSFJ’s “Child Day-Care” action programme represents another step towards making work and family life more compatible. By increasing the number of child day-care places available for under-threes, it aims to offer the best possible conditions in terms of childcare to ease parents’ return to work after parental leave, which can now last up to 14 months.
In addition to featuring 160 selected pilot locations, the programme aims to provide all day-care staff with 160 hours of basic training. Further and additional training will also be provided for existing child-care professionals to increase the overall quality of care in children’s day-care facilities. Day-care staff will also receive support if they want to train part-time to become state recognised child-care professionals or social work and teaching assistants. The BMFSFJ hopes that childminders will provide up to 30 percent of all child-care services in future.
Company-Supported Childcare
The “Company-Supported Childcare” programme forms part of the BMFSFJ’s business initiative “Success Factor Family”, which aims to establish sustainable incentives encouraging businesses to commit to family-oriented HR policies. The programme supports businesses that are creating childcare places for children of employees or that want to increase the number of places they currently provide. The funding is provided as start-up financing, covering up to 50 percent of operating costs – up to a maximum of €6,000 per place per year – for the first two years.
MORE men in children’s day care facilities
In launching the ESF pilot programme “MORE Men in Child Day-Care Facilities”, the BMFSFJ hopes to develop and implement strategies to increase the proportion of men working in child day-care facilities. The programme aims to stir male interest in becoming qualified child-care workers, to support men in their decision to enter the profession and to improve career prospects for men (and women) in child day-care facilities. By testing innovative strategies in 16 selected pilot schemes, the programme seeks to document and help develop transferable best-practice models that can be applied in the medium and long-term to achieve the EU’s goal of raising the proportion of male childminders to 20 percent.
Contact partners:
gsub mbH
Kronenstraße 6, 10117 Berlin
Financial fund management
Phone: +49 (0)30-284 09-220
Fax: +49 (0)30-284 09-310
Stiftung SPI
Schicklerstr. 5-7, 10179 Berlin
Practical programme guidance
Phone: +49 (0)30-390 63-460
Fax: +49 (0)30-390 63-480
info@esf-regiestelle.eu
