Stadt in der Stadt
Start date: Jan 1, 2015,
End date: Dec 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project „City within the City“ is a job shadowing project, where youth workers from Italy and Poland will come in summer 2015 and summer 2016 for one week to Leipzig, Germany. They will have the possibility there to participate in an inclusive cultural educational project and to exchange knowledge with experienced youth workers from Germany. They will have the opportunity to learn about the structure of the project, the organizational aspects and work methods. There will be diverse learning courses. In summer 2015 there will be the tenth anniversary of the project in Leipzig with its activities it will be part of the celebration of 1000 years of Leipzig. It established itself as a vacation play project with an inclusive character. Children at the age of 6-12 participate in this project irrespective of their origin, social status, physical or mental disabilities. It takes place between Monday and Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the closing ceremony takes place on last Saturday 2p.m. to 6 p.m. and is there for the child carers, children and their families) and enables the children to build their own wooden city. The child carers in the age of 13-75 are mostly volunteers and work under the guidance of experienced professionals. The role of the child carers is mostly passive, they let the children plan, build and create the city on their own. At the same time, artists and youth workers offer workshops in sports, play, crafting, sculpting etc. (dependent on the abilities and specialty of the volunteers). During 2 weeks (always the first two weeks of summer holidays in Leipzig) daily 180-250 children are participating in the project and 80-100 care taker are involved to help.
The mobility project supports the strategy partnership of the participating organizations and makes it possible for the youth workers from Krakow (Poland) and Reggio Emilia (Italy) to organize the project „City within the City“ also in their own cities. The Leipzig University of Applied Sciences evaluated the factors which are responsible for the success of this project. These results help the partner organization Manta Communication in Italy and IB Polska in Poland to organize the first „City within the City“ projects in their cities. In summer 2016, when the projects are taking place in Italy and Poland, the youth workers will have the opportunity to participate in this projects and exchange knowledge. The impact of this projects should be the further development and the expansion of the project idea in more cities and countries. We want to offer in Europe as many inclusive, cultural educational projects in a similar form as possible which should grow on the basis of the existing concept. A further goal is to learn about an economical and lasting project concept and to use this knowledge especially in regions with a higher need for education and care in connection with at the same time declining social care systems.