Educational Sciences

In 2011 and 2012, the Berlin districts Mitte, Lichtenberg, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Tempelhof-Schöneberg and the Senate Department of Urban Development and Environment were scientifically monitored and advised on the implementation of interdepartmental community orientation at the request of the same Senate Department. For the City of Cologne, a summative evaluation was performed on the results of the six-year pilot project “Liveable neighbourhoods – citizen and community-orientation in Cologne”. Evaluative research was also concluded on regional governance of child and youth support in Essen-Kray and the NRW “WohnQuartier4” pilot project on shaping the future of age-appropriate neighbourhoods. The effects and sustainability of the following projects were subject to ongoing formative evaluation by ISSAB: child and youth welfare support in the federal state capital of Hannover, the Q8 pilot project of the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf in Hamburg on inclusion through community orientation, the “Zollverein mittendrin” pilot project of the Zollverein Foundation in cooperation with the RAG Foundation in Essen, as well as a project of the City of Essen on fighting child poverty and encouraging participation. The institute is also providing scientific evaluation of changes to the social environment of youth welfare services implemented in the administrative districts of Osna­brück and Gummersbach in the period 2009–2011. In 2011 ISSAB organized a nationwide professional exchange on the topic of integrated neighbourhood development and interdepartmental community orientation in Essen in cooperation with the City of Essen.
Professor Wolfgang Hinte was keynote speaker at four international conferences (at Lebenshilfe Berlin, Bern University of Applied Sciences, IVS Vienna, and the Institut für Kind, Jugend und Familie in Graz) on the perspectives of social work against the background of social discourse on ­inclusion and was invited to participate as an ­expert in the hearing of the Family, Children and Youth ­Committee of Hamburg City Assembly. He was appointed board member of the Verband für ­sozial-kulturelle Arbeit (Berlin). Dr. Gaby Reinhard was appointed to the board of trustees of the ­Anneliese Brost Foundation (Essen). National collaborations exist with the City of Essen as part of an open-ended cooperation agreement on integrated community development and neighbourhood management, and with the City of Mülheim an der Ruhr in a contract for municipal social planning support. Further research cooperation is also ongoing with Bern University of Applied Sciences on comparisons and perspectives of child protection in Switzerland and Germany. Research accompanying the aforementioned Q8 pilot project of the Evangelische Foundation Alsterdorf in Hamburg and the “Keck” project of the Bertelsmann Foundation on municipal development and opportunities for children will be major areas of ISSAB’s work in the years to come.