Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung socially engaged!

With its commitment, Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung pursues the goal of promoting social participation and making it accessible to all people, regardless of their individual living conditions. The following overview shows current projects of selected funding partners and thus provides an insight into the current funding activities of Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung.

Current funding projects of the Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung

As part of its Upper Franconia-wide commitment to strengthening social participation, the following projects, among others, are currently being funded by Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung :

Redesign of the Kaufplatz area, Liebenswertes Kulmbach e.V.

• Object of funding: Proportionate funding of project costs for the realisation of a bocce court, volleyball field, seating and other design elements.
• Target group: Kulmbach citizens and their civic engagement; with a focus on families, children, adolescents, young people, students and senior citizens.
• Type of commitment: voluntary work
• Sphere of action: City and district of Kulmbach

Kulmbach is strongly affected by demographic change. It is above all the hardly existing open and/or cross-target group offers in the city that encourage young people to move away and lead to the ageing of the urban society. Another related challenge lies in anonymity, i.e. the lack of opportunity to establish contacts beyond one's own social context. The initiative Liebenswertes Kulmbach e.V. (Worth Living Kulmbach), which was founded in spring 2021 by citizens, would like to counteract this fact with the project to "redesign the Kaufplatz area" by incorporating the concerns and ideas of the people of Kulmbach into the city's design. With this in mind, the former Kaufplatz site is to be designed as a meeting place with the involvement of surrounding youth organisations and clubs during the period of interim use from spring 2022 until probably the end of 2024. In this way, the initiative promotes civic engagement and participation processes in urban society. It gives the (young) people involved the opportunity to contribute their wishes and ideas and to experience themselves as an effective, co-creating member of society. An approach that at best has a positive effect on the tendency to move away. Further positive effects: Strengthening the understanding of democracy by making participation opportunities tangible and, last but not least, networking the participating organisations to implement the planning. For example, a bocce court, a volleyball court, a themed playground, various seating areas and other design elements are to be created. A neighbourhood management for the active shaping of the social space that has been created, such as the organisation of events, beach volleyball and bocce tournaments or courses for beginners, are also planned.

The initiative Liebenswertes Kulmbach e.V. with its project to "redesign the Kaufplatz area" has developed out of a concrete concern. It shows that there are indeed possibilities to include the needs of citizens in local political decisions. The Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung therefore supports the project with a share of the project costs for the realisation of various design elements.

Your interest in the project is aroused? Information and background information on the project can be found on the Facebook profile of Liebenswertes Kulmbach e.V. Citizens who would like to get involved in the project are cordially invited to contact Elsbeth Oberhammer, Dr. Barbara Biella and Andreas Schobert from the project team via email.

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KLUG!entscheiden, University of Bayreuth

• Object of funding: Proportionate funding of project costs
• Target group: Pupils from 8th/9th grade up to 13th grade and their teachers.
• Type of commitment: full-time coordination by the KLUG!entscheiden team
• Sphere of action: Kulmbach and all of Upper Franconia

Young people have an overwhelming variety of educational paths, professions and life plans open to them. It is not uncommon for this fact to make them overwhelmed by the question "What do I do after school? In most cases, it is simply not possible for young people to have an overview of the complexity of this decision. Although schools support pupils with various offers from cooperation partners (educational institutions such as universities, employment agencies, etc.), these often anticipate educational pathways without addressing the individual strengths of the pupils. As a result, young people, due to insecurity, often choose obvious alternatives or alternatives suggested by other people in their environment, without taking their personal goals into account in their decision. It is also resistance or fear of personal failure that prevents them from taking unconventional paths that may not be expected by their environment but may be more suitable for them. Such unreflective educational decisions lead to dissatisfaction and involuntary dropouts with negative effects on self-perception and ultimately have serious consequences for society, such as youth unemployment, demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers, as well as ultimately increasing social inequality. Furthermore, a lack of decision-making competence is also associated with a low resistance to populist and anti-democratic initiatives.

In order to avoid such negative effects from the very beginning and at the same time to establish more educational equity and educational opportunities, the initiative "KLUGentscheiden" of the University of Bayreuth starts exactly where decision-making strength is needed: with the students of the 8th/9th to the 13th grade who are about to graduate from school and thus make the transition to professional life. The two-day decision-making training, which is open to all types of schools, includes, among other things, the analysis of one's own values and goals, the identification of individual opportunities and possibilities, the analysis and evaluation of options for action, as well as getting to know suitable decision-making tools, all in the spirit of "What are my individual decision-making parameters?". Part of the programme is also the training and support of teachers to become multipliers, in order to be able to place the training in schools in the long term.

The question of "What will I do after school?" has received little attention in the classroom up to now. The project "KLUGentscheiden" of the University of Bayreuth brings this question to the fore and ultimately leads to the fact that pupils inevitably have to deal with this important topic. Due to the accompanying materials and training of multipliers, the project has the potential to be established in the classroom in the long term. It is an ongoing initiative that has been supported by the Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung since 2018 with pro-rata funding of the project costs.

Are you interested in the project? All information about the project "KLUGentschieden" of the University of Bayreuth is available here. Interested teachers who would like to learn more about the decision-making training and would like to bring the workshop to their school are welcome to contact Foundation Officer Tina Beeg via email .

PIKASS - Perspective. Integration. Cooperation., gfi gGmbH, locations in Upper Franconia

• Object of funding: Proportionate funding of project costs
• Target group: People with autism spectrum disorder; companies/employers
• Type of commitment: full-time project coordinator through vocational coaches of gfi (Gesellschaft zur Förderung beruflicher und sozialer Integration) gGmbH
• Sphere of activity: Upper Franconia region

People with autism spectrum disorder have perceptual limitations and process stimuli fundamentally differently from the average population. For example, social interaction and communication are impaired and repetitive stereotypical behaviours and interests are evident. Coping with the given environmental conditions requires considerable adaptation on the part of those affected. Corresponding specific behaviours are often met with incomprehension by fellow human beings. The result is often exclusion on both sides as well as more difficult social, societal and thus also occupational participation for those affected. With the project "PIKASS - Perspective. Integration. Cooperation. the Gesellschaft zur Förderung beruflicher und sozialer Integration (gfi) gGmbH (Society for the Promotion of Vocational and Social Integration), which has several locations in Upper Franconia, has set itself the task of enabling people with autism spectrum disorders to participate more with the help of individual vocational coaching. The coaching includes individual discussions, one group day per week on site, the teaching of social skills and key qualifications, and professional qualifications such as application training, language courses and business basics with the aim of finding a suitable apprenticeship or job. Last but not least, integration into a company also means social contacts, activation in everyday life and training in daily routines, which also go hand in hand with increased independence due to financial independence. In addition to coaching the affected persons themselves, gif's initiative "PIKASS" aims to pass on experience and expert knowledge to interested companies in order to raise awareness of autism spectrum disorder in the work context and to win over more companies for the integration of affected persons in the labour market.

The project "PIKASS - Perspective. Integration. Kooperation." project of the gfi is particularly convincing with its impact-oriented overall concept, both for the participants and for the companies. The Adalbert-Raps-Stiftung supports the project with pro-rata funding of the project costs for the project years 2021 to 2023.

Areyou interested in the project? Information on the project "PIKASS - Perspective. Integration. Kooperation." project and the relevant contact details can be found on the gfi Bamberg website.