School welfare: expensive but urgently needed

Created: 05/15/2022, 10:06 am

By: Stefanie Zipfer

School social work: The professional support of students is becoming more and more important (symbol image).

© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa

The city of Dachau promotes social work in schools.

The city council is unanimous: all the money is well invested.

Dachau – The city of Dachau is investing a lot of money in youth social work at the Anton-Günter-Straße middle school and the Augustenfeld, Dachau-Ost and Klosterschule elementary schools – and it is set to increase even further in the coming years.

Youth social work at these schools is offered by Awo Kinder und Jugend GmbH.

The family and social committee voted with a large majority on Tuesday for a subsidy totaling 163,000 euros for 2023 and 180,030 euros for 2024. This year the municipal subsidy to Awo is 147,700 euros.

According to Awo, the increased need for funds is due to tariff and tax increases.

It is fundamentally the task of youth social work in schools to support socially disadvantaged children.

During the corona pandemic, when children were forced to deal with the subject matter more or less independently in homeschooling, children from difficult backgrounds in particular were in danger of falling through the cracks.

The city administration explained to the city councilors on Wednesday that the federal government had recognized this problem and approved an "action program catching up after Corona for children and young people".

This means that rural districts, urban districts and independent youth social work organizations in schools are to be “adequately financially supported”.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Dachau newsletter.

Regardless of how much of this promised money ends up in Dachau, the city councilors agreed that this budget item should not be cut.

City councilor Sabine Geißler (Alliance), who is a teacher herself in her main job, explained that she knew “how valuable this work is and how urgently it is needed.

Every cent that we save here will fall back on us later".

School referee Katja Graßl (CSU), also a teacher, praised the "outstanding work" of the Awo social workers at the Dachau schools.