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Example of local implementation – Nuremberg
The city of Nuremberg (large city in the Bavarian region of Franconia with ca. 500,000
inhabitants) fulfils the requirements for the implementation of the E&C programme
platform: 15 % of children and young people leave school without qualifications, 10 % of
the population are dependent on social security payments according to the SGB II
[German Social Security Code] and approximately a third of adults and ca. 40 % of children
and young persons have a migrational background. As in all larger German cities, social
problem complexes are concentrated on so-called social focal points or disadvantaged
neighbourhoods.
The experiences described in Nuremberg in the three social city areas Nordostbahnhof,
Altstadt-Süd and Galgenhof/Steinbühl focus primarily on the programme LOS – Local
Capital for Social Purposes (cf. also AG5). Other programme elements were unfortunately
not able to achieve the intended results, although follow-up project efforts can naturally
learn from these experiences. The forerunner of the LOS project – “Competence and
Qualification (KuQ) – suffered from its over-short duration, whereas in the “Voluntary
Social Training Year (FSTJ), the potential of new cooperation forms were not recognised
by all participants.
In Nuremberg, the LOS principally supports small, local and frequently unconventional
project concepts and initiatives – so-called micro-projects – which cannot be incorporated
into larger-scale support programmes. The aim is to create structures and networks
through these micro-projects which will continue to exist beyond the duration of the
support programme and which will improve living and working conditions of the
population in the relevant city areas. Micro-projects can be offered by initiatives,
associations, educational and organisational institutions, welfare and economic associations,
church communities, local businesses or also by individual persons or start-up
entrepreneurs with good ideas.
The core of the implementation structure is the coordination office in the Youth
Welfare Office in Nuremberg. Cooperation with the area management in the supported
city areas is continuous and effective. An accompanying committee (BGA) was specifically
created to decide on the allocation of project funds in the city areas. The work of this
committee guarantees that all social actors (supporting bodies and local economy), but
above all young people and the inhabitants of these disadvantaged areas, can be involved in
the relevant decisions affecting them: for many of these people a new experience.
The socio-environmental organisation structure of the overall programme
implementation also harbours innovative potential. People have always been indifferent as
to which specific organisation or administrative department has offered their services. The
same does not however apply to the institutions involved. Even the “Socially Integrative
City” programme or the E&C is not a universal remedy for departmental vanities and
egoism, and the development of integrated overall strategies is certainly not made easier
when administrative departments in local authorities assign areas of responsibility to
associations with differing political colours. It can however be established that concrete
collaboration between authorities and bodies, the common desire to discover solutions and
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