Streetwork

Description of the service

Streetwork of the Department of Education of the City of Halle (Saale) is aimed at all adolescents, adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 and 27 who are (as a group, clique, in scenes or individually) in the public space of the respective social space.
The focus is on young people who are not (or no longer) reached by conventional offers of institution-based youth and social work and who are often stigmatized by society as socially disadvantaged, behaviorally original, conspicuous and/or criminal. The street workers carry out social space and target group-oriented outreach youth (social) work. They are contact persons for young people, advising, accompanying, caring for and supporting them. They help in personal emergencies and crisis situations, offer help for self-help and arrange help for basic existential care, among other things.
The core of this work with adolescents and young adults is the establishment of a trusting relationship, for which the basic requirements are acceptance, voluntariness and confidentiality.
Streetwork supports the target group in the development and implementation of their life perspectives. The aim of Streetwork's work is to help people cope with life and improve the living conditions of adolescents, adolescents and young adults.
Streetwork aims to prevent or reduce exclusion and stigmatization and offers everyday social services that promote social integration and improve the living conditions of the addressees. Streetwork is a low-threshold offer. This means that access options and accessibility are adapted to the needs and possibilities of the target group.
The service can be used without preconditions and advance payments. Targeted group activities, such as sports, leisure and experiential educational activities, can strengthen relationship work and serve to activate group dynamic processes.
Projects are developed on various topics, which are oriented towards the needs, interests and demands of the target group or react to tendencies and developments in the youth scene. Street workers also offer help with the self-organization of activities of young people. Street workers work according to the following principles:

• Voluntariness (The addressees decide whether the aid is accepted.)
• Anonymity / protection of trust (Everyone is advised, even without mentioning the name. Conversations will be treated confidentially. Street workers only act with the consent of the addressees.
• Partisanship (Streetwork advocates for the interests of adolescents and young adults.)
• Street workers do not take things out of the hands of the addressees, but want to strengthen them. Above all, they offer help for self-help.)
• Transparency (Street workers are open and honest and expect the same from the young people seeking help.)
• Mobility/flexibility (Street workers seek out the addressees in the places where they are, but they also have an office.)