Youth work / youth education

Youth work promotes the development of young people's personalities and prepares them for life in the community. It helps them to recognise, respect and experience values and strengthens their ability to act on their own responsibility. Youth work ties in with the interests of young people and is co-determined by them.

Youth work is an independent part of youth welfare. It carries out the educational and training tasks according to § 11 SGB VIII and advocates for the concerns and interests of young people in public.

In concrete terms, youth work can be understood as a variety of more or less pedagogically shaped, non-commercial, experience-related activities in the leisure time of children and young people. Centrally, these activities are characterised by a high degree of self-determination on the part of children and young people. In concrete terms, this is reflected in the fact that youth work is characterised to a particularly high degree by voluntary and honorary commitment on the part of young people.

Youth work services are provided by independent (youth associations, clubs, initiatives, etc.) and public providers (youth welfare offices).

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