Association of Viennese Youth Centres

The Association of Viennese Youth Centres (VJZ) is a Non-Governmental Organisation, but mainly supported financially by the municipality of Vienna. The main part of the annual budget is decided year by year by the Vienna City Council.

The Association employs app. 300 persons (about 100 fulltime), most of them as youth-workers directly in the field. Therefore it is one of the main employers in social work in Vienna.

The range of activities is:

 Open youth work in youth-centres and youth clubs
 Detached youth work
 Training courses, especially in creativity (drama, dance, music)
 Counselling
 Organising events, especially in the fields of music and sport
 Special programs during holiday seasons, such as camps and international exchanges

Target group of the Association is youngsters in the age from 6-21. Depending on the needs of the surroundings there is often a difference in the main focus of the project. Usually we define “Children” (6-9) “Juniors” (10-13) and “Youth” (14-20). Some centre provide also offers for adults, community centres are specialized on adults.

Every participation on every activity is on a voluntary basis!

The activities are mainly developed and planned by the structures directly situated in the field. The main office takes care about financial questions, supervising, monitoring and trainings for employees.

The social environment has to be analyzed/thoroughly assessed before appropriate measures can be taken. Each unit develops its own concept based on this analyses (“Sozialraumanalyse”), the mission statement and the quality criteria of VJZ

Teams represent a diverse range in terms of personal background, education and are gender balanced

Key-terms in the work of VJZ are:
• Empowerment
• Diversity
• Voluntariness
• Participation
• Teamwork
• Lobbying

Methods used are
• Streetwork, Outreach Work
• Animation
• Event Organizing
• Conflict Transformation
• Counseling
• Group Work
• Workshops
• Adventure Education
• Sport
• Media Work
• E-Youth work

Issues we address are generally focused on the needs and demands coming from the target groups, mainly it is
• Education/Job
• Spare Time Activities (Music, Dance, Sport)
• Family
• Sexuality
• Criminality
• ……………….

Currently the association runs:

15 youth centres
8 youth clubs (smaller centres, with a great extend of outreach youth work)
4 units of detached youth work
1 centre for fine arts
2 community centres
2 “SpaceLab” job training centres
CU – TV (Youth TV programme)
5 Seasonal units for public park animation
6 local youth parliaments