Projects

Youth Offices Competently Inclusive (Jakomi) #

Team #

• Dr. Thomas Meysen (SOCLES International Centre for Socio-Legal Studies gGmbH), Project Lead
• Prof.ⁱⁿ Dr.ⁱⁿ Ulrike Urban-Stahl (Freie Universität Berlin), Project Lead
• Prof. Dr. Benedikt Hopmann (Universität Siegen), Project Lead
• Dr. des. Julia Tierbach (Universität Siegen), Research Associate
• Sarah Molter (SOCLES International Centre for Socio-Legal Studies gGmbH), Research Associate
• Anja Borchert (SOCLES International Centre for Socio-Legal Studies gGmbH), Research Associate

Project Description #

The Jakomi project supports youth offices in preparing for inclusive child and youth welfare services. The focus is on developing professional practices for examining and fulfilling the legal entitlements of young persons with disabilities in the context of comprehensive responsibility. To date, youth and social welfare offices process the needs of young persons very differently, with divergent logics and procedural workflows. The central challenge lies in integrating two perspectives: on the one hand, the person-centered view of integration assistance, which focuses on impairments and participation barriers, and on the other hand, the family-systemic view of child and youth welfare, which considers child- and family-related needs. Youth offices face the demanding task of balancing both perspectives: perceiving young persons holistically without reducing them to their impairments, while simultaneously providing supportive accompaniment to the entire family system without deficit-oriented questioning of parental upbringing. The project addresses the question of whether, when, and how the family-systemic perspective has been integrated into care and overall planning to date. Three focal points are examined: needs assessment, participation options, and the interplay between legal requirements and concrete practice. Specifically, the aim is to capture parents’ experiences of care and overall planning, which needs are considered from different perspectives, and which obstacles and success factors exist in incorporating the family-systemic perspective. Methodologically, the project employs a mixed methods approach with four components. First, two group discussions with parents of children with disabilities are conducted for thematic exploration. Building on this, five individual interviews are carried out with both parents and children with disabilities. A nationwide quantitative questionnaire survey of parents is then conducted in cooperation with Kindernetzwerk e.V. In parallel, two focus groups with professionals from three different organizational types of social service providers are conducted (services according to § 35a SGB VIII in the general social services, integration assistance services according to SGB VIII and SGB IX through specialized services, services according to SGB IX in the social welfare office), focusing on their current practice and reflecting on the findings from the parent survey. Finally, one validation workshop takes place on the preliminary findings with parents of children with disabilities. In selecting participants, attention is paid to regional distribution and diversity of disability-related needs. Based on the empirical findings, success factors for participation-oriented care planning that strengthens self-determination in the context of disabilities will be described. The research results will be made available to the professional public in a final report. The results will also be published in relevant professional journals for practice and research.