Youth Work / Youth Education
Service description
Youth work promotes the personal development of young people and prepares them for life in the community. It helps them recognize, respect, and experience values, and strengthens their ability to act independently. Youth work builds on the interests of young people and is shaped in collaboration with them.
Youth work is a distinct component of youth welfare services. It carries out the educational and training responsibilities specified in Section 11 of SGB VIII and advocates publicly for the concerns and interests of young people.
Specifically, youth work can be understood as a diverse range of non-commercial, activity- and experience-based programs—some with a stronger educational focus than others—offered during the free time of children and adolescents. A key feature of these programs is the high degree of autonomy and self-determination they afford to children and adolescents. Specifically, this is reflected in the fact that youth work is characterized to a particularly high degree by the volunteer and voluntary engagement of young people.
Youth programs are run by nonprofit organizations (youth associations, clubs, initiatives, etc.) and public agencies (youth welfare offices).
Legal basis