"An unsettling time"

The Corona crisis has been part of people's everyday lives for almost nine months.

For adults it may be a relatively short time, for young people it feels like half an eternity.

The youth centers are very popular.

District

- "The challenges for young people are not getting any less," says Christian Kreilkamp from Herrschinger Haus der Jugend Stellwerk.

The employee of the youth center (JUZ) is happy that, unlike in the first lockdown, the house can remain open in the current partial lockdown, after all, youth care is one of the municipal compulsory tasks.

A clear hygiene concept applies at the JUZ, i.e. permanent mask requirement, distance requirement, one-way street regulation with separate entrances and exits and contact data recording at the entrance.

Since it reopened in July, the signal box has nevertheless seen a rush.

The Starnberg Youth Center Nepomuk is also very popular.

As in the Herrschingen House of Youth, the dignified location is a house with plenty of space.

Small institutions are in a more difficult situation.

The Gautinger JUZ can only let twelve people in at the same time due to the limited space.

So that everyone can come, you can only stay an hour and a half.

Britta Gürtler explains that not everyone understands this.

"We can't really do justice to the current onslaught," says the pedagogue.

Like her colleagues in Herrsching and Starnberg, she is happy that the JUZ can be open.

The fact that the team is currently "actually just Corona police", however, is "corrosive for everyone involved".

This not only applies to maintaining a safe distance and mask requirement, some visitors have even tried to secretly let friends in through an open window in order to bypass the rules.

In addition to the spatial difficulties, there is a shortage of personnel.

Of three full-time positions at Gautinger JUZ, only one and a half are currently occupied, the team is hoping for support from December.

A problem that other youth centers in the district are also familiar with.

In Krailling, the Kraill-In youth club was closed in mid-2019, Pöcking's youth center Q-Stall is also looking for employees and wants to reopen in the new year.

The community of Gilching with two youth centers, however, made a conscious decision to close the two facilities in the partial lockdown.

“With the decree of the second lockdown, the requirement of the federal and state governments was linked to reduce the number of contacts for infection protection reasons by 75 percent,” says Mayor Manfred Walter when asked by Merkur.

"In order to roughly achieve this, we have therefore decided to close the youth center and youth club." The risk of infection there is no lower than in a café or a fitness studio, says Walter.

The offer in the open facilities is only reduced.

Excursions or cooking together - unthinkable given the pandemic.

What is happening, however, are talks.

“Having the opportunity to go somewhere and talk to someone, even if only for ten minutes,” is very important, says Kreilkamp.

For young people the crisis is "an unsettling time", says Kreilkamp's Starnberg colleague and Nepomuk director Theresa Eichinger.

"The problems of the parents do not leave the youngsters indifferent." In addition to the uncertainties with regard to Corona, there are worries such as finding a job, since internships are hardly possible.

Many also wanted to know from employees what they are currently allowed to do and how and where they can find reliable information on the Internet.

He also had to discuss the topic of conspiracy myths around Corona, says Kreilkamp.

The fact that Herrsching has had a street worker with Jan Pleines since this summer is an enrichment.

"Of course it also catches a lot," says Kreilkamp.

In the cold season, however, the protected rooms of the youth centers are indispensable.

With regard to contact restrictions, they are “a gray area”, according to Britta Gürtler from the Gautinger Youth Center, since more than two households naturally come together.

Nevertheless, they should remain open.

Nepomuk director Eichinger: "Young people need a space for development and coexistence, also outside of school."