Speakers from open youth work talk to students about areas of work and campaign planning.

Why is youth work so important? How can its visibility be increased with targeted campaigns? And what is the mission of social work in this field of activity? These questions were the subject of a visit by guest speakers to a course in the Social Work programme. Representatives from open youth work reported on their work and the added value of successful campaign planning for their own field of work. The event took place as part of the university tour of the "BÄM!" campaign of the Paritätisches Jugendwerk Niedersachsen.

What moves young people nowadays, how they become members of society, what challenges there are to overcome and to what extent the services of open youth work are perceived as supporting them, is part of the content of the course "Education, Development and Socialisation" in the Social Work programme. In order for the students to be able to examine these topics from the perspective of practitioners, the course team invited speakers from the field of open youth work. "We want to inspire young people to get involved in open youth work," says youth education officer and project coordinator Natascha Samp from the Paritätisches Jugendwerk Niedersachsen. Together with her colleagues Jan-Henning Göttsche from the association SoFa e.V. and Kai Uhlhorn, Paritätischer Cuxhaven, as well as young people and two trainees for the year of recognition, she talked to the students about different fields of activity. "The visit of the guest speakers is the starting signal for the second semester. We will refer to this event again and again during the seminars," says programme director Prof. Dr. Antje Handelmann.

In addition to reports from their everyday work, the students learned what needs to be considered when developing and implementing a campaign. "If you want to achieve a broad impact, you need good public relations. Our campaign 'BÄM!' is a best practice example for this. Everyone who works in the field of open youth work will benefit from it," says Natascha Samp. Her tips and tricks will help the students to develop and implement their own campaigns in the third and fourth semesters as part of their practical projects. A project fair is planned for 25.05.2023, to which all practice partners of the study programme and students are invited.