FREUDENBERG STIFTUNG Informiert

FREUDENBERG STIFTUNG informiert The first 20 Years of the Freudenberg Foundation 1984 – 2004 Table of Contents Foreword of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees 3 About this report 9 Integration and immigration 11 Sinti and Roma 29 Young people between school and working life 39 Learning democracy and assuming responsibility in school and the community 55 Employment for mentally ill people 71 Developing local models in selected areas and city districts 81 Developing, supporting and disseminating our projects 95 Annexes 109 Foreword of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees The Freudenberg Foundation, established in 1984, is celebrating its 20th anni- versary this year. We believe this is a good occasion to look back on the work it has done so far. The Foundation was born when members of the Freudenberg family decided to transfer a part of their holdings in the Freudenberg company, which until then had been owned exclusively by family members, to a non-profit foundation. Since then the Freudenberg Foundation, having the legal form of a non-profit limited company, has been a partner of the company – albeit with- out voting rights. Günter Freudenberg took the decisive first step when he transferred limited partnership capital shares. According to his request, the Foundation was to concentrate on sociopolitical issues and be managed according to professional criteria. When the managing bodies were formed, he – so as to set a good example – did not want to be a member himself. The Board of Partners with five members and the Board of Trustees comprising nine persons control the fortunes of the Foundation. The Board of Partners, in which the company holds only two places, appoints the Board of Trustees and, together with the latter, the Executive Director. Apart from that, its work is limited to defining the financial framework every year and it has the final de- cision when the Board of Trustees wants to make any fundamental changes in the Foundation’s program or guidelines. That, however, has never occurred in the past two decades. The objectives of the Foundation – as is the case in most statutes of foundations – are formulated only in a very general manner. Accordingly, the Foundation’s objective is to promote the sciences and education as well as peaceful coexistence in society. Based on its statutes, the Foundation also can do „charitable“ work. Therefore, the first task facing the Board of Trustees twenty years ago was to accurately define the Foundation’s fields of activity. The thematic profile created in this way during the Founda- tion’s first two years has proven to be both open to necessary developments and stable at one and the same time. The Board of Trustees was able to continue the thematic interests and experiences of the company and individual partners. Thus, the areas of interest pursued by the Foundation were not chosen „out of the blue“ but can look back on a long tradition. An outstanding example is the so-called „Ettlinger Kreis“ founded by Hans Freudenberg, which was headed first by him and then by Hermann Freudenberg for 20 years up until the middle of the 1970s. The most significant topic of interest of this circle of entrepreneurs and scientists, which, by the way, was not very popular with industrial associations, was 3 reforming the general and vocational education of young people. The „Ettlinger Kreis“ was succeeded by the „Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“ within the „Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft” (Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany), which also was headed by Hermann Freudenberg. This foundation was interested in the topic of immigration and integration and to this end developed a model project for the vocational and social integration of primarily „foreign youth“, which was realized in Weinheim with funds from the Freudenberg company in 1979. Based on the pattern of the „Weinheim Project“, the program of RAA, short for „Regionale Arbeitsstellen zur Förderung ausländischer Kinder und Jugendlicher“ (regional centers for the promotion of foreign children and ado- lescents) was developed and built up in nine cities in the Ruhr district between 1980 and 1984 with funds from the Federal government, state and municipal governments as well as the „Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“. When the Freudenberg Foundation was established, the Board of Trustees decided to continue this thematic tradition and, thus, also took over the projects of the „Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“ in its program. It had, so to say, a flying start. The same holds true for another area of concentration of the Foundation: Pro- fessor Rudolf Freudenberg, who had emigrated to England, proposed open- ing psychiatric wards and finding ways to reintegrate mentally ill people in their communities. He was particularly concerned with the question as to how these people could find work, and he was able to prove the feasibility of these suggestions on the basis of practical models. Therefore, in the past two decades, the Foundation has dedicated its work to the following five areas. Firstly, the integration of immigrants and cultural mi- norities in a society that has become an immigration society as well as the hostile and discriminating reactions facing them. Secondly, the promotion of a democratic culture, since this is a prerequisite for peaceful coexistence in society. In this respect, the main focus – in a positive sense – is on promoting projects with the objective of teaching democracy and individual assumption of responsibility in schools and communities and – in a negative sense – of combating extremist, above all right-wing extremist, influences on the everyday culture in which young people grow up. Thirdly, the Foundation concen- trates on assisting young people who, particularly due to social discrimination, encounter problems at school and in the system for attaining vocational quali- fications. Fourthly, reintegrating mentally ill people into working life as well as increasing society’s awareness of their specific problems. This area has achieved numerous significant goals in the past 20 years and will no longer be continued as a separate area of activity. The other three main areas of activity will continue to characterize the Foun- dation’s profile in the future. Assuming it is correct that foundations should be active primarily „anti-cyclically“, i.e. that they are not supposed to do what is 4 being politically promoted anyway, then the areas of interest defined by the Board of Trustees when the Foundation was founded were well chosen be- cause they still respond to sociopolitical deficits today: inadequate policy of immigration and integration, insufficient democratization policies, in particu- lar in eastern Germany, and insufficient education and vocational training policies. The Foundation can be glad and also a little proud of the fact that it did not give up its areas of interest, even when only very few people were interested in them. Up until today – and despite the PISA study – such topics as youth, education and vocational training do not enjoy political priority. The influences of right-wing extremism on everyday life no longer rate news cover- age, even though the same misdeeds as before are occurring every single day. Although the linguistic and social integration of immigrant families is being dis- cussed in public again, no appropriate action is being taken. At first glance, it may seem that a foundation which allocates between Û 1.7–2 million per year is trying to realize a confusingly broad thematic program. Yet, in fact, the three areas overlap and are closely interconnected. All areas are concerned with the problems of social discrimination and lack of recog- nition. Moreover, children and teenagers are the center of attention: the Foun- dation strives to promote the social, linguistic, educational and vocational integration of the next generation. Based on our past experience, this calls for a broad approach that encompasses the families, the neighborhood and sur- rounding environment, the institutions responsible for education and assis- tance as well as the possible occupations and employment market. A fre- quently quoted wise saying claims that only a couple is needed to bring a child into this world but a whole village is needed for the child to be raised well. Based on this maxim, it can be concluded that if the village, the city district, the „social environment“ of the family gets into difficulties, this will affect the young children and youth. For this reason, we have decided – as a fifth area of interest – to concentrate our efforts on individual towns or city districts where there is great need of development. We want to apply the experiences gained in our other three areas of interest there and contribute to the development of local models of urban renewal as well as the intensification of „integration potentials“. We hope that in this way the interrelationship between the three main areas of interest – integration, vocational qualification, learning democracy – will have an actual effect on the persons concerned. Although a description of its thematic areas of interest and sociopolitical objectives is certainly important when characterizing the Freudenberg Foun- dation, its work gains true color only when one looks at „how“ these objectives are realized. The basis for this is formed by the guidelines, which we have not had to change in the past twenty years. Accordingly, the Foundation is primarily an „operational“ organization. In other words, even though it accepts 5 applications and supports interesting projects, it does not wait for others to present their ideas but develops projects itself together with its partner or- ganizations. In doing so, it responds to innovation gaps caused by bureau- cracies and tries to find solutions by developing practical models.

Load more