Since 2002, the Freudenberg Foundation has been testing the effectiveness of concentrating in a certain geographic area its proven strategies of assistance in such areas as promoting migration and integration, helping young people successfully make the transition between school and working life as well as furthering democratic culture in schools and communities. In other words, local models are long-term development projects implemented in communities or districts together with partner organizations, local political or administrative offices in order to improve the culture of assistance so that children and adolescents can successfully complete the transition from kindergarten to school, from school to home, from school to working life as well as between school and youth work. By concentrating the assistance efforts on "one square kilometer of education and integration", the foundation hopes to create a comprehensive culture of assistance around an elementary school that will let the children grow up successfully so that no child is lost.
With its "Youth Culture" program, the foundation is responding positively to impulses coming from districts and towns where "Local Models" are developed to help adolescents learn about themselves, realize their own effectiveness and communicate with each other through art and to exhibit this to the general public. Art can be a wonderful medium for developing the intercultural understanding and development of young people. Meetings with artists frequently lead to motivation and self-initiative and increase their self-awareness.
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Based on the methodical approach of "developing local models", the Freudenberg Foundation brings together effective initiatives from its four program areas in selected city districts or towns. In this way, it can increase the effectiveness of its own initiatives by working together with municipal offices and independent organizations.

 

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