Some time ago i was involved in a project called "Zukunft Hallschlag" (Future Hallschlag). Hallschlag is the name of a district of the town i live. This district was always known as one of the more underprivileged Areas of my town. You used to hear people say "better dont go there"...Most of the people living there are older folks and familys of immigrants who came here to work in the 60s and later. Most of the housing there is public-housing and what they started nowadays is replan the district. Many houses were riped apart or they renovated buildings and after that they raised the rent. I think to think like that is not helping anybody who lives there...I mean the end of this is that many families have to move because they can not effort to live there anymore. Of course crimerates etc. will be sinking- but the truth is that all these people still exists-just in another place...I thought alot about gentrification and i am kind of split in my thoughts. For some people it is better but there is a huge part and for them everything gets worse.
In this Project people from the City talked to residents what they want in their future and listened to what they have to say. My part was to work with so called "difficult youngsters" on some Graffitiprojects. It was going on for some time and the money for this workshops came from a big company that is located in that area. I worked with this kids and during the time i get to know them better and was able to find out about them thoughts and stories.
It is really difficult for them. If you grow up there u are already stamped from little on- there is always this "bad image". This is like your shodow following you through life. For example if you are ready with school and you have to find a job - you write applications and often only the place you live is the reason that you are out of the circle of people they might hire. Also the contact with police. Police is much more active in districts like this and most of the teenagers i worked with had some kind of a negative picture of police because they told me that police often picking on them although they did nothing at all- they were just hanging out. I liked working with these kids but the sad thing is that everything is all about money...Companies funding projects like these for some time- then if they have them positive publicity, if they have them newspaper articles etc. for them "thats it". They stop funding.
At the end of the day the kids left alone again. I mean there just grew some relationship between me and them and then everythings stops... This was one reason i stepped back from jobs like this- because i know it is not in the intrest of these kids. One example... I worked with a youth organisation in this place for some time and there was a kid called Tufan. Tufan was a immensly comitted and skilled kid- he had avoice in his community and was trying to do lots of positiv things there. I kept contact with him for a long time. He was ready with school and had to find a job- for him it was very hard to find one. One day i met him working in a gasstation...I totally didn`t get that. Why this Youth organisation did not hired him as a Socialworker? In my eyes thats rediculous. They hired somebody else from outside who has no relation to this neighborhood at all .
