Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0026/00265.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 11KB | 253 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00265}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Youth Organisations and Youth Work in Austria}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Federal Press Service}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Austria, Washington DC}
$Subject{youth
federal
organisations
million
work
union
young
education
funds
plan}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Austria Culture and Society 1945-1955-2000
Author:      Federal Press Service
Affiliation: Embassy of Austria, Washington DC
Date:        1989

Youth Organisations and Youth Work in Austria

Preface

     The present Documentation cannot claim to be a complete survey, since the
field of youth organisations, youth work and related welfare initiatives is
too vast for a comprehensive treatment. Thus, there are numerous individual
campaigns carried out by a wide range of bodies, just one example of which is
the annual "Licht ins Dunkel" ("Light into the Darkness") campaign run by the
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in aid of handicapped children and
young people. The organisations not included in the present Documentation are,
however, numerically smaller groups which do not drastically change the
overall picture; so that, even given the limitations referred to above, this
Documentation can claim to be representative.

General

Extramural youth education

     Youth organisations and youth work in Austria take their place alongside
the family and the school as a third autonomous educational sector, referred
to as "extramural youth education". Its objective is to help young people to
fulfil their personal goals in life within the social environment. The major
distinction between this educational sector and the other two - the family and
the school - is its voluntary nature.

     Extramural youth education in Austria is run by autonomous organisations
which are completely independent of the state. There are no state-run youth
organisations. The various youth associations and youth groups, sports
associations and sports clubs, adult organisations running youth groups,
institutions devoted to youth work but run by adults - all of these bodies
work independently, within the scope of their own statutes outlining their
objectives but without any interference on the part of the state.

Care and support for young people

     Although - as explained above - the state does not interfere in the
activities of the youth organisations, it naturally takes a great interest in
their work. For this reason the Ministry for Family, Youth and Consumer
Affairs has a special department for extramural youth education which deals
with general matters of governmental policy in the field of young people and
with the co-ordination of the work of the Provincial Youth Departments in each
of Austria's nine provinces. These departments are concerned primarily with
providing assistance and financial support for youth work.

     (The addresses of the Ministry for Family, Youth and Consumer Affairs and
of the nine Provincial Youth Departments are given in the Appendix, p. 36).

     Youth work involves pursuing the following principal objectives:
developing the personality; promoting the attitudes of the individual young
person; encouraging tolerance and healthy social relationships; political and
civic education; promoting young people's social commitment; preparation for
partnership and family; cultural encounter; media education; healthy physical
upbringing; and finally the protection of children and young people.

Contact with young people

     Within the framework of this goal every possible means of support is
given to youth organisations and institutions concerned with the interests of
young people, to all forms of youth welfare work, to the training of youth
group leaders, supervisors and instructors, to the creation and maintenance of
facilities for youth work, to the organisation of excursions and travel for
young people, international youth encounter and young people's literary
activities. This promotion takes the form of a comprehensive range of
seminars, courses, discussion groups, competitions and similar events arranged
for youth organisations and their staff and dealing with political and civic
education, community awareness, arts and media education, physical exercise,
ecology, family and children. In general it is true to say that the Department
for Extramural Youth Education is also responsible for contacts with youth
organisations, for the allocation of funds from the Federal Youth Plan, and
for the independent promotion of youth work.

     The principal liaison body linking the Department for Extramural Youth
Education with young people and the individual youth organisations is the
"Bundesjugendring" (Federal Youth Union), an umbrella organisation to which
the most important Austrian youth associations are affiliated and which is
designed to promote the common interests of the member associations without
limiting their autonomy or activities.

The Federal Youth Union

     The Austrian Federal Youth Union has been in existence since 1953, and
the country's major youth organisations are affiliated to it. Its aim is to
facilitate the joint promotion of the interests of young Austrians and the
carrying out of services for young people which are beyond the scope of the
individual organisations. The youth organisations do not have the resources to
finance their youth work from their own funds or the funds of their related
adult organisations. Consequently, the state provides support for youth work
in the form of the Federal Youth Plan, whose funds are allocated for specific
uses. At a national level the work of the Federal Youth Union focuses on the
fields of youth employment, women, civilian service, the armed forces, school
education, development aid policy and the environment. Working groups have
been set up to consider these issues and to formulate approaches to the
related problems. The Union is also responsible for representing Austria's
children's and youth organisations internationally and is thus a member of the
Council of European National Youth Committees (CENYC). The Federal Youth Union
maintains close links with youth organisations in neighbouring countries and
with national youth committees in the People's Republic of China, the Soviet
Union and the United States.

     The necessary preconditions for membership of the Federal Youth Union
are: recognition of the Republic of Austria, of the Austrian nation and of
democracy; a central administration within the member organisation; work in at
least 30 groups; a minimum membership of 2,000; and finally involvement in all
areas and problems relating to the lives of young people.

     The office of the Federal Youth Union has the address: Bundesjugendring,
A-1030 Vienna, Am Modenapark 1-2, tel.: [phone].

Organisations affiliated to the Federal Youth Union

     The following organisations (listed in alphabetical order) are members of
the Federal Youth Union:

     Arbeitsgemeinschaft katholischer Jugend Osterreichs,

     Bund Europaischer Jugend,

     Evangelisches Jugendwerk in Osterreich,

     Gemeinschaft christlichen Lebens (Marianische Kongregation) in
Osterreich,

     Jugend und junge Erwachsene (J-GCL/MK)

     Junge Osterreichische Volkspartei, affiliated to the
OVP = Osterreichische

     Volkspartei (Christian Democrats),

     Katholische Jungschar Osterreichs,

     Mittelschuler-Kartell-Verband der katholischen Farbentragenden

     Studenten-korporationen Osterreichs,

     Naturfreundejugend Osterreich,

     Osterreichische Alpenvereinsjugend,

     Osterreichische Gewerkschaftsjugend,

     Osterreichische Jungarbeiterbewegung,

     Osterreichischer Pfadfinderbund,

     Osterreichisches Jungvolk,

     Osterreichisches Kolpingwerk,

     Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Osterreichs (Boy Scouts and Girl Guides
Movements),

     Sozialistische Jugend Osterreichs,

     Sozialistische Kinderbewegung - Kinderfreunde.

The Federal Youth Plan and independent promoti