Youth center in Lobeda: About skater ramps and lovesickness | Jena

The “meeting point” headquarters, built in 1984, at the end of Erlanger Allee in Lobeda-Ost is “very down”, says Christine Wolfer. For the remaining weeks, the old low-rise building has to be “looked after well so that it does not collapse”.

Future in the school sandwich

From Christine Wolfer’s point of view, the new building location between the two school centers in Karl-Marx-Allee is a blessing because there are many interactions. “The schools are already looking forward to finding space for presentations and celebrations there.” Above all, the “meeting point” at the new location flanked the all-day school segment even better.

Christoph Jaros, who has been managing the “Treffpunkt” since 2019, sees the core of his work in this. The transfer of leisure activities to education – “that is the most exciting thing about youth work,” says Jaros, who has a master’s degree in education, culture and anthropology at the Friedrich Schiller University. In addition, from the workshop surveys, the opinions of the “meeting point” visitors on the design of the new building were summarized and included in the planning, reports Christoph Jaros. During the building consultations he was able to remind the builders from time to time that “we are building a youth center and not a congress hall”.

„Bauzaun for Future“

The new house will be characterized, for example, by a flexible stage and workshop space. It is important to Jaros that the building is not only a shelter, but that “the kids” also “work into the social space”, as he says. The completely legal graffiti project “Bauzaun for Future” fits in with this.

Christine Wolfer and Beate Butters say that Jena is well equipped overall with its five youth centers spread across the city, plus the Klex leisure center, the leisure shop and the adventure playground. The youth welfare office is not just a “guard office”, as Christine Wolfer puts it.

Beate Butters has an official eye on children from problem-laden families and appreciates this interface between the two specialist services: Without the network of youth centers, for example, “our work for families in need of help is hardly conceivable,” she says. “We have to create structures like this to get the children out of the families.”

In the first lockdown, the six-person meeting point team (three employees, three volunteers) “got hold of the kids very badly,” reports Christoph Jaros. “That was a bit of a one-way”, as he says, so it’s a one-way street. But over time, new formats have been adopted in digital communication, currently a platform from the gaming area, for example.

Introduction to yoga

In the current “restricted regular operation” due to corona (maximum 25 visitors at the same time), the meeting point team is also happy to guide people towards exercise. Table tennis, fitness program with street workers, “easy introduction” to yoga, billiards – everything is possible. In autumn, two ramps were built together with the young people in one room: skating under the roof!

Then there is the Sunday “Sunday Funday”, 4 to 7 pm in the gym, Emil-Wölk-Straße: For a long time it was football-dominated and less attractive for girls, reports Christine Wolfer. “The offer has now been opened a bit.”

It all sounds nice and multi-active. But there is also another way of doing things, as the invitation on the pin board in the “Treffpunkt” entrance shows: Questions about school, job, training, lovesickness?

The Jena youth welfare office has existed for 30 years. Because there are no anniversary celebrations due to Corona, the local newspaper steps in and highlights examples from the work of the office.

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