Listening to adolescents: Corona survey expanded

In April this year, the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg with its specialist service for sports and youth work conducted a survey among children and young people on the topic of "Life during the pandemic". On the initiative of Mayor Henning Scheele, the town of Lichtenfels with school social worker Yvonne Pixa from the MPS Goddelsheim and Claudia Vach from the Evangelical Youth Lichtenfels-Eisenberg had registered as a pilot municipality for the cooperation.

With success: In a video conference, District Administrator Dr. Reinhard Kubat and those involved in the city of Lichtenfels have already discussed the survey results with the young people and recorded additional concrete measures as wishes of the adolescents. These measures are now to be implemented soon, as far as possible. "We now want to follow up on this successful survey with an extended questionnaire and expand the survey to the entire district," explains Matthias Schäfer, Head of the Sports and Youth Work Department.

The extended survey started in the town of Frankenau. There, Mayor Björn Brede distributed a personal letter to over 150 children and young people aged 11 to 17 inviting them to participate in the online survey. The online voting is, of course, anonymous and the participants' feedback cannot be attributed to any particular child or young person. In this way, every participant can express his or her thoughts freely, and the feelings and individual needs of the adolescents in the Corona period are authentically reflected.

Mayor Brede on the goal of the town of Frankenau: "Above all, we want to listen and offer support", focussing on the wishes of young people and how to deal with the pandemic. The district also wants to specifically explore interests in online and leisure activities and find out the adolescents' preferred activities. "We want to take into account the insights we gain, but also the impulses we receive, when it comes to needs-based recreational programmes and educational offers - throughout the entire district," says Andreas Greif, deputy head of the specialist service for sports and youth work.

The good news for the district is that other municipalities have already expressed their interest in carrying out the survey in their area of responsibility - in fact, the survey is just starting in the municipality of Vöhl. The Department of Sport and Youth Work welcomes this development because it is the only way to obtain a comprehensive picture of the situation of children and young people in the district. It is therefore desirable and important that as many of the 22 towns and municipalities as possible participate. For more information on the survey, please contact the district's sports and youth work department at 05631 954-496 or e-mail jessica.hecker-robinson@lkwafkb.de.