- The inauguration of the KonTEXT reading room and
- two events "In total confidence"
Until shortly before the beginning, additional chairs were being brought into the meeting room - with the title "Ethics in extreme situations" one had probably hit a nerve. "Assistance for young offenders" two projects that were presented this evening enjoyed great response. The Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration, Prof. Dr. Markus Wessler, welcomed the visitors - in addition to external guests, mainly students from his faculty as well as from the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences. It has long been a common goal of the two faculties to interlink more closely. This was achieved with the KonTEXT reading room and this event, according to Dr. Wessler.
KonTEXT Reading Project for delinquent juveniles
Dr. Caroline Steindorff-Classen, professor at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, introduced the program. She runs the reading project KonTEXT, which she has developed together with students for delinquent youths. Juveniles who have been required by a juvenile court to participate in the reading project KonTEXT come to the university and read books together with students. The texts serve as a basis for exchange about the experiences of the fictional actors, give space for self-reflection and promote the mutual understanding for the world of others. Around 400 young people are now looked after in this way. KonTEXT has been honored with several awards in recent years, recently making the leap into the federal selection of 25 projects (out of 300 competitors) in the nationwide competition "startsocial", for the promotion of volunteer social engagement, which will be awarded in the Federal Chancellery in the summer of 2018.
It was a particularly touching moment when the speaker gave a very vivid insight into the life story of a currently detained youth, who once participated in the KonTEXT project years ago: He had agreed to share passages from his letters with the audience:
"I made the same mistake several times, getting drunk and and getting into fights afterwards, understandable that no one has any more leniency, but what the court does not see is how you are being treated as a criminal. Branded! Yes I did a lot of stupid things, but can't people change? I say yes, but my surroundings say no. If you can't get a job, because of a criminal record, you have no money, and you won't get anything from the welfare system anyway. And even if you do, you still don't 'get it'. At some point you just feel redundant. Some turn to alcohol or drugs, others become burglars or thieves. Others end up committing suicide, because there simply is nothing desirable left". The LEONHARD project was made for people like him.
The LEONHARD qualification program for offenders with an entrepreneurial mindset
Afterwards, Dr. Bernward Jopen told the exciting story of founding his social enterprise. In 2010, following a visit to a similar project in the US, he decided, together with his daughter, to launch the charity LEONHARD: "In 20 weeks, we teach students what a founder needs, why it is appealing to own a company lead and where dangers lurk. In addition, we provide a behavioral training in non-violent communication. Even if only 29 percent of the graduates start their own business, the rest learns through our training to distinguish themselves as an entrepreneurial employee in a company. "
And the stats speak for themselves: of the 152 graduates so far, only 13 percent relapsed, 60 percent were employed within 28 days after their release with the help of pro bono mentors and 29 percent became self-employed (as of Nov. 9th, 2017). This means that LEONHARD's graduates are well above average.
CONTEXT Reading room: A place of encounter
