Prevention chains Aachen - Focus on children

It is a sustainable network for children, young people and parents. The specialists work together to ensure that families receive the right help, encouragement and support quickly and easily. And to ensure that this succeeds, the providers and specialists cooperate with each other from the most diverse directions. They involve the parents and children. Because they are the experts, they know which services are right for them.

In Aachen, every child should be able to grow up well and healthy. That is the goal. The focus is on the child. All children should have the opportunity to participate in social and cultural life. Disadvantage, such as poverty, must be balanced out and origin and education decoupled.

The school entry examinations already reveal significant developmental deficits in children who receive social benefits. The differences are particularly serious when it comes to German, counting and selective attention. These are basic learning skills. If no active countermeasures are taken, these deficits will increase. Figuratively speaking, these children start with a rucksack.

• 90% of parents state that they receive information about services from teachers and educators (see KeKiz, accompanying research, Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016 and 2019)
• Mainstream facilities, i.e. daycare centers and schools, should be used to place offers. (see KeKiz, accompanying research, Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016 and 2019)
• Parental involvement is the factor that positively influences children's educational success (see Deutsches Jugendinstitut, Sabine Walpert, 2013)
• All actors in the municipality who have contact with families must be sensitized to the living conditions of families and prevention (see accompanying research ISA, Bertelsmann Stiftung 2019)

Daycare centers and schools are places of trust for parents. They go there when they have questions about their child. The paths are thus paved. Now it is important to develop daycare centers and especially schools as information, advice and educational institutions for parents. Making parents active educational companions for their children is the factor that influences a positive educational biography. Professionals are door openers, especially for parents in poverty. For this reason, professionals must receive further and advanced training in poverty-sensitive action.

The city of Aachen has been developing the prevention chain in close cooperation with many independent organizations since 2010. At the top level, it is the city council that promotes the (further) development of the prevention chain. Various specialist committees, such as the Children and Youth Committee, have previously discussed the project and given it a positive vote.

Since 2017, there has been a cross-sector steering group with managers from the administration and independent providers. It sets the direction and is chaired by head of department Susanne Schwier. The steering group checks whether the measures are well received and effective.

The KiM network meets once a year. Experts from youth welfare, schools, daycare centers, sports, social affairs and integration, among others, discuss issues here. Topics include parent cafés at schools and daycare centers, networking with the health sector or, as last year, a topic on poverty-sensitive action. The network meetings contribute to cooperation between experts.

The professionals have extensive knowledge of how families are doing and what they need. The strength of the prevention network is its ability to look at the entire life chain and transitions. This expert knowledge forms a central planning basis for the coordination office and the steering group.

To ensure that the interaction works well, there is an office in the administration where the threads come together. This coordination office is the driving force behind the prevention chain. It identifies gaps in the support system, develops responses to challenges, establishes links to existing services, carries out needs assessments and action planning, applies for projects and implements them. The prevention office is part of the Department of Children, Youth and Schools, Youth Division.

Following an inventory and needs assessment by the coordination office, working groups developed specific offers for the Aachen North district. Bringing together what already exists was the motto

• The "Griffbereit" and "Rucksack" language programs to promote multilingualism, in combination with the "Haus der kleinen Forscher" program
• Publicizing the "Rolling KiTa" service in the "Child and Family" sub-committee of the Aachen North District Conference.
• NordSport, i.e. free sports activities in free halls at the weekend

The Aachen North pilot area showed that a wide range of services, providers and planning structures are available. However, one wonders what is actually still missing? There is a lack of structural networking between the regular systems and the (socio-spatial) support network. Since all children go to school and almost all children go to daycare, these are the places in the regular system with which the support network must be linked. And consequently, the parents are reached via the children.

The parents' café in daycare centers and elementary school is a friendly and personal access point for parents to education, advice and support. It encourages parents to get to know each other and exchange ideas. "Guests" from the support network are invited to the professionally supervised parents' café. In a friendly atmosphere, parents get to know experts whose help they can access without any hurdles after getting to know them personally. This could be the local sports club, the job center or social services. The parents' café is an information hub for parents, who feel very welcome in the daycare center and school. 60% of daycare centers / family centers already have a parents' café. A survey by the coordination office shows the impact of parents' cafés.

The results of the survey of the parents' cafés are convincing. Family centers are socio-spatial advice and education centers for parents and for people in the social area. This successful model was transferred to elementary school. According to the educators, KiTa parents miss this welcoming culture after their child moves to elementary school. Many parents experience this transition as a break. A transfer of the already tried and tested model was obvious. The Family Primary School Aachen was born.

At four family elementary school ("Am Haarbach", "Driescher Hof", "Mataréstraße" and "Schönforst"), it is easy for parents to receive advice, support and education. In particular, parents who have previously benefited little from the support system are reached. This is shown by the evaluation of the coordination office at the primary family schools "Am Haarbach" and "Driescher Hof". Both parents and specialist staff were surveyed at these three schools.

Here are some voices:

• "With every campaign, we reached parents who would otherwise be impossible to reach."
• "As a parent representative, you learn a lot more about the school. I might do that next year."
• "At last the school is open to us parents, not just for official matters."
• "I don't know the cathedral at all, are you allowed in there as a Muslim?"
• "Here, people help each other across cultures."
• "I dare to speak here."
• "The wall to the school is gone."

The elementary school "Am Haarbach" and "Driescher Hof" are financed by municipal funds. The sponsors are the family education centers "InVia", the "Ev. Familienbildungsstätte", the "Helene Weber Haus" and the "Deutsches Rote Kreuz". Family education and schools are structurally interlinked - as in the family centers.

Child poverty is parental poverty. This is why the training, qualification and employment of parents is important in order to reduce income poverty. It is easier for parents to gain access to qualifications and the job market if they can talk to professionals. The possibilities of off-peak childcare, financed by the job center, can also help to better reconcile job/qualification/training and childcare.

Following a project phase, two Jobcenter specialists have been regularly visiting the parents' cafés of the 27 plusKITAs and the 4 family elementary school since October 2019. The offer has been well received, according to reports from the Jobcenter. Sometimes it is a smaller group, where it is also possible to talk in person, other times there are 10 or more parents. Mothers usually take part. Four thematic blocks emerge from the contacts:

• Benefits from the Jobcenter
• Job search/applications, also in conjunction with the services offered by the employment agency
• AachenPass and the family card of the StädteRegion
• BUT

Another effect is that the specialists in the facilities become more familiar with the Jobcenter's services. They can incorporate their updated knowledge into their next consultations.

Against the background of equal health opportunities, families in difficult social situations in particular need support and suggestions on how to organize their everyday lives in a healthy way (see 13th Children and Youth Report 2009). The family elementary school offers low-threshold access to this target group through the parents' café. The experience gained at the two primary family schools shows that it offers parents the opportunity to ask personal questions and discuss everyday topics, including children's health and nutrition, without feeling ashamed.

If the goal of sustainable health prevention is pursued, it is essential that education and health go hand in hand. The opportunities to develop health literacy in everyday life must be as low-threshold and transparent as possible in order to be accepted. In addition, health promotion must take place in as many environments as possible in order to be anchored in everyday life.

Elementary school are a particularly suitable place for health education. Children of primary school age are curious and keen to try things out. Content on the topics of 'nutrition' and 'exercise' is met with a lot of enthusiasm and attention here. However, it is just as important to promote the health literacy of parents. The family remains the first and most elementary place of education in the life course (see Müller et al. 2015). Regular visits from parents and the existing relationship of trust with school staff are a suitable basis for presenting educational and supportive offers on health topics and thus having a targeted preventative effect.

The coordinators succeeded in acquiring project funding for the "Healthy Family Primary School" via the Prevention Act "Promotion of projects in living environments in accordance with Section 20a SGB V by the health insurance funds/associations in NRW". For a total of 3 years (until the end of September 2021), amounting to around €280,000. The project is being implemented by the "Helene Weber Haus" in cooperation with the "Protestant Family Education Center".

The target group is school staff, children and parents. The range of activities includes yoga, cooking together, exercise classes, swimming courses for mothers, mindfulness training and Drumsalive.

SportVorOrt is a free, socio-spatial and open sports, exercise and games program for children, young people and parents. It takes place in various districts, such as "Aachen Nord", "Preuswald" and "Driescher Hof". Many children affected by child poverty live in these districts, where there are few attractive, non-commercial activities on offer at the weekend. The program has already incorporated the wishes of the families in a participatory manner during development and advertising. SportVorOrt is a cooperation between various stakeholders, such as the "Helene Weber Haus", the "Ev. Familienbildungsstätte", the Aachener Förderverein "Integration durch Sport", the "DJK Forster Linde" sports club, the "Driescher Hof" elementary school, the "Children, Youth and Schools" department and the "Sport" department.