Social Exclusion in Schleswig-Holstein

 

Thank you very much for the opportunity to talk to you today at this conference and sincere thanks to our Finish hosts for providing this possibility for exchange and discussion.

 

Organisational and institutional Dimension

At the beginning I would like to describe the organisational structure of the Diaconie and the fields of work we are engaged in.

The Diakonisches Werk of the Protestant Church in Germany (DWEKD) is the oldest (founded in 1848) of the six leading organisations of non-government social welfare services in Germany  and consists of 24 regional diaconies. The regional diaconies are autonomous organisations but are linked through their Christian belief, work-ties and their joint efforts for a more humane and just society.

In Schleswig-Holstein the diaconie is active in the following areas:

-          services and social support for children, youth, family and elderly

-          voluntary and alternative (to military) services

-          work and cooperation with volunteers

-          work with handicapped people

-          ecumenical diaconie

-          migration, asylum

-          labour market

-          Europe

-          help for people at risk (homeless people, drug addicts, indebted people)

-          involvement in projects in the Kosovo and in the Baltic States

The Diakonisches Werk Schleswig-Holstein is the umbrella organisation for the Church Social Services in the 603 congregations of the Northelbian Evangelical Lutheran Church and in the 24 church districts (24 in S-H and 3 in Hamburg). The Diaconie of Schleswig-Holstein has around 450 member organisations with a total capacity of 55.000 places and roughly 28.000 employees and several thousand volunteers. We represent 100 mobile social services, 8 institutions for nursing care, 88 institutions for geriatric care, more than 100 church affiliated diaconial counselling centres, around 600 kindergartens with over 36.000 places, 14 family education centres, 45 institutions for disabled people and 7 schools for training and further education.

 

 

Social Exclusion in the European Union

As I work for an umbrella organisation with numerous fields of work, I would like to focus on only two examples today: under the major heading of social exclusion I shall roughly describe two conferences and our expectations linked to them.

Social exclusion is a multi-facetted issue in the European context and also in our organisation.

Article 137 of the Amsterdam Treaty enables the European Union to undertake initiatives against social exclusion and apart from a funding programme to fight and to prevent social exclusion, the European Union tries to tackle the problem through the method of open coordination which consists of guidelines, national action plans and a dialogue of the relevant actors who are involved in the fight against social exclusion.

On the European level specific risk groups have been identified. These are: unemployed people and people who are not gainfully employed, pensioners, single parents, large families and people with a low level of education and professional training. Children especially are a vulnerable group: in 1996 21% of all children in the European Union lived in low level income households; almost half of all children (46%) who lived in single parent households were confronted with income poverty. Furthermore, EUROSTAT stated that children and young adults between 18 and 24 years of age were more often poor over a longer period of time.

The observation that single parents, single elderly people and large families faced a greater risk of being confronted with income poverty was supported by two thirds of the European member states.

 

Social Exclusion in Schleswig-Holstein

These European findings are supported in Germany by the wealth and poverty report (national level) and by the poverty report of Schleswig-Holstein (first poverty report in summer 1999).

 

Poverty has a young face: in regard to all age groups in Schleswig-Holstein children of up to seven years of age are the group in which poverty appears most often: 22% of children in this group can be regarded as poor. Moreover, the report states that every tenth child under 7 years of age claiming social security has been a claimant for three or more years. Households with three and more children up to the age of eighteen are often confronted with poverty and 30% of children living in such families can be called poor.

 

Poverty remains female: mostly single mothers face poverty (34,9%), every third single mother in Schleswig-Holstein receives social benefit. (highest percentage of social benefit claimants of all risk groups). The report shows that male poverty risks are linked to labour market trends (unemployment, underemployment, precarious employment etc.) while life situations of women are dominated by problems of child care and family situations (separation, divorce, pregnancy etc.) plus the labour market situation.

 

Poverty is multidimensional and gains solidity: Every eleventh parentin the Schleswig-Holstein survey has no or a very low school qualification, one fourth has no professional qualification. The report indicates that especially young women under 29  years of age (49,1%) and women with three and more children (39,1%) are excluded from education and training. The interruption or termination of educational processes and professional training is closely linked to child and family responsibilities – very often the reason is lack of child care provision. In regard to health problems the report concludes that almost 10% of the informants are permanently ill or in need of care, 15% live together with ill family members or with family members in need of care. 16,5 % informants describe themselves as being without close friends and 8,8% consider themselves as almost isolated. 28,1% of the families in this survey say that they lack adequate provision in at least three of the following areas: housing, income, employment and education.

 

 

Events of the Diaconie in Schleswig-Holstein

On the whole the poverty report of Schleswig-Holstein paints a rather grim picture. I would like to draw your attention very briefly now to two events the diaconie in Schleswig-Holstein has organised and is organising in order to help prevent and erase social exclusion and poverty.

 

One focus is on homelessness. The Diaconie supports 27 advice and day care centres and a number of shelters for homeless people. On the basis of our practical involvement we organised two regional conferences and in 2001 we decided to organise a conference on social exclusion with a focus on homelessness on the national level. This national conference reviewed the national and regional poverty reports and the European strategy against social exclusion. And furthermore we looked at the issues of income and indebtedness, housing, education, health, migration and labour market developments. The discussions showed very clearly that the demand for exchange and debate would not be satisfied with one conference and as a result, the Diaconie organised a transnational conference on Homelessness in the Baltic Sea region last year in November. We had guest speakers from Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Finland and participants from a number of European countries. Again it became clear that the need to learn about the different situations in different countries was essential. Before we can appreciate best practice projects we have to be able to understand the historical, cultural, social, economic and political framework. This understanding is the basis for the possibility to learn from good practice models and to find out which elements are transferable into our own circumstances. The Diaconie sees itself here as a facilitator, supporter, networker, platform. We want to create opportunities for exchange and cooperation.

 

The other focus is the situation of children. The figures concerning social exclusion and poverty of children are alarming. The Diaconie has decided to work on the problem of domestic violence against children because this issue is often neglected in debates and for this reason we are organising a transnational conference in September this year in Kiel. Our conference aims at drawing attention to the difficult situation of children and youngsters who witness violence against their mothers and often become victims of violence themselves. We want to discuss these problems with practitioners, executive staff of support institutions, experts and scientists, to promote the cooperation of experts on the national and transnational level and to initiate further development of assistance for children and youngsters. One focus within our conference issues will be domestic violence against children with disabilities. In our view this a neglected, ignored and silenced problem which we would like to create awareness of and one of our workshops will concentrate on this problem. Please regard this short description as an incentive to inquire about our conference and to participate. We would love to welcome you in Kiel in September.