Lokaler Aktionsplan für Vielfalt, Demokratie und Toleranz
Name / Title | Lokaler Aktionsplan für Vielfalt, Demokratie und Toleranz (LAP), Landkreis Bautzen |
Case Study Region | Direktionsbezirk Dresden, Germany |
Geographical coverage | County of Bautzen |
Type | Voluntary group; funding scheme; training scheme; project |
Main activity / focus
| – distribution of national funds for social work |
Target beneficiaries / market
| – focus on young people in the County of Bautzen |
Year established | 2007 |
Current Funding source(s) | – Model region in the national programme „Jugend für Vielfalt, Demokratie und Toleranz – gegen Rechtsextremismus, Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Antisemitismus“ (youth for diversity, democracy and tolerance), initiated by the Federal Ministry for Family, Elderly, Women and Youth |
| The LAP was founded as a regional contact point of the national programme „Jugend für Vielfalt, Demokratie und Toleranz – gegen Rechtsextremismus, Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Antisemitismus“. This contact point employs two persons, who are officially contracted by the association Netzwerk für Kinder- und Jugendarbeit e.V. These two employees should manage the regional implementation of the national goals. This task consists mostly in organizing the distribution of the national money but also in networking regional actors in the field of social work. The regional actors are composed of immigrant associations (e.g. Leuchtturm Majak e.V.), the regional network of social workers trägerverBUNT, the public order oriented association Bürger & Polizei e.V., the socio-cultural centre Steinhaus, but also temporary work groups that are founded for single projects (such as the Intercultural Week Bautzen). |
Website | http://www.lap-bautzen.de/ |
Description
| Why is the LAP a good practice? 1. Testing new forms of distributing public money: the LAP’s official task is to distribute national funds for social initiatives on the level of the County of Bautzen. Therefore, the LAP had a certain degree of freedom to define how to do this. The philosophy of the LAP was, that the regional stakeholders know the best what to do with the money. So, they initiated the project ‘Macht Euren Projekten Beine’, in which a committee composed of regional teenagers decides about the project funding of the proposals made by other teenagers. This means that the young people could decide on their own what to do with the money from the national ministry, independently from their political agenda. Due to the idea to distribute money on the level of the county, LAP has achieved a good general overview about initiatives that are engaging in the regional social fabric. Thus, it could apply a more flexible and liberal way of providing funds than a Saxon or national authority could ever do. The social and geographic proximity to the beneficiaries of the funding programme is an important factor for building trust and mutual understanding between financier and initiatives. Regional specificities could better be respected and the money is ‘invested’ more efficiently. 2. network hub: LAP, since its foundation in 2007, has reached strong publicity in the region due to its presence in different regional networks of social workers (e.g. Tolerantes Sachsen / Weltoffenes Sachsen / trägerverBUNT). Thus, the LAP contact point became a central stakeholder in the County’s social initiatives community, which has a central position in informational and knowledge networks, and which works as a broker of contacts to Saxon and national political bodies which fund social initiatives. Furthermore, due its mission, LAP engaged in networking regional initiatives that haven’t been connected before. 3. The active stakeholders of the LAP were so engaged during the funding period 2007-2010 that they succeeded in finding new funds for future activities. With their engagement and regional publicity they could sustain the LAP as a long-term actor within the regional community. |
Contact details
| Mr Oliver Schneider |