CARITAS DER ERZDIOZESE WIEN - HILFE IN NOT

opis organizacji

CARITAS VIENNA counsels, accompanies and supports members of our society who are currently finding themselves in a challenging situation, who are suffering from illness or the consequences of an unfortunate incident or a catastrophe. CARITAS VIENNA assists regardless of the social, national or religious background of the people in need.

CARITAS VIENNA runs various departments focusing on different social challenges. One department is the so-called DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITY WORK focussing on prevention and ongoing support for people at social risk. The various projects of this department accompany housing units, foster neighbourhood helping networks, support volunteering and tackle social exclusion through community arts. One of the projects run by the department for community work is a culture center called OBJEKT 19. That is the exact place where we would like to run a European Solidarity Corps project. That is why we are focusing on OBJEKT 19 when answering the questions below.

OBJEKT 19 is located at the arts and culture area BROTFABRIK WIEN (a former bread factory, www.brotfabrik.wien) at the Viennese district "Favoriten" – a borough situated on the outskirts of Vienna and facing various social challenges. Whereas the galleries and artists based at BROTFABRIK WIEN do not focus their activities on the residents living in the surroundings (since they long for financially strong customers who live in other areas of the city), OBJEKT 19 aims at linking BROTFABRIK WIEN to the social housing complexes neighbouring the area. Besides this specific function as part of BROTFABRIK WIEN, various projects based at OBJEKT 19 – e.g. COMMUNITY COOKING (https://www.facebook.com/communitycooking.brotfabrik), LERNCAFÉ (https://www.caritas-wien.at/hilfe-angebote/asyl-integration/ausbildung-arbeit/jugend-lerncafes/lerncafes/), SUPERAR (http://www.superar.eu/) – focus on easing social tensions prevalent within the district by strengthening solidarity among residents, decreasing social isolation and fostering social cohesion within the neighbourhood. The initiatives offer and create space and opportunity for the residents to express and experience themselves and become aware of their potentials.

OBJEKT 19, however, is more than the sum of these initiatives: It is a community hub that initiates participative processes. Moreover, since OBJEKT 19 is located at the arts and culture area BROTFABRIK WIEN and is interested in leveraging the potential of this surroundings, OBJEKT 19 is addressing social issues by the means of participatory arts (at least to some extent). OBJEKT 19 as a whole aims at empowering the neighbourhood by activating individual and collective capabilities/capacities as well as strengthening local structures and networks.

OBJEKT 19 operates a specific field that is often overlooked by stakeholders, such as city developers. Developing a place like BROTFABRIK WIEN on the outskirts of Vienna produces challenges: As mentioned above the galleries, ateliers and offices based there are interested in attracting financially strong customers and, therefore, do not focus their activities on people living in the social housing complexes in the direct surroundings. The residents, on the other hand, are observing changes
taking place in front of their windows without feeling being part of and having a say in them. OBJEKT 19 aims at opening up BROTFABRIK WIEN for the people living in the surroundings: Instead of observing participating is offered as an alternative. OBJEKT 19 offers expertise where other players of the area have a blind spot.

Speaking of target groups, OBJEKT 19 focuses on the people living and working around BROTFABRIK WIEN. Besides building bridges between BROTFABRIK WIEN, the galleries and the residents, the project particularly focuses on the multiple social challenges which are being encountered in the area surrounding BROTFABRIK WIEN. The target group can be divided in several groups:

• population / people living in the area
• community (arts) workers & organisations
• “new” players in the area: galleries and others organisations of BROTFABRIK WIEN.

The culture center OBJEKT 19 is a hub that transforms the place where different individual projects are based into a space of thinking participatory processes (through art and social design) and engaging the community.