Landshut

The home and care project aims to support single parents and their children by securing employment opportunities and tackling social exclusion as well as child poverty. In 2017 there were 1.5 million single parents with minor dependents in Germany. Based on information from the Landshut job centre, 394 single parents in the City of Landshut received state transfer payments. Of these, 240 have one child and 111 two children (status September 2018). The group of single parents thereby represents 21% of all benefit recipients. At the same time, around 100 single parents in nursing, healthcare and care professions could immediately find employment in Landshut, if child care was available in the necessary hours. Taking into account that working hours in care, health care and child care professions are very often outside the traditional opening hours for child care centres, the main challenge lies in providing tailor-made child care so that employment and training opportunities for single parents can be expanded. By approaching this challenge, an important first step shall be made in removing the specified groups of individuals and their children from the poverty trap.

The project takes up the challenge by developing a new integrated concept of flexible child care and housing. Two buildings with connection doors and common areas will be constructed and tested allowing single parents working in healthcare and nursing professions to live door to door with single parents working in childcare. Mutual cooperation between the two target groups will be established with childcare workers taking care of children of healthcare workers. Child care will be available at all times, either normal daytime care in large-scale day care facilities or at unusual times (nights and weekends) in the homes. The special large-scale day care facilities staffed by carers with pedagogical qualifications combined with the door-to-door residential partnerships in a single building will enable a new form of flexible child care unmatched by regular child day care. With this innovative approach one group of single parents will get the possibility of obtaining employment in healthcare and nursing professions while the other group of single parents will have greater opportunities to complete pedagogical training. Based on a learning and training concept adapted to this structure, single day care mothers will for the first time be able to complete state-recognised day care training alongside their normal activities.

• City of Landshut
• Kinderstiftung "Zukunft für alle Kinder" - NGO
• Heilig-Geistspitalstiftung Landshut - NGO
• ZAK e.V. Landshut - NGO
• Klinikum Landshut - private company
• LAKUMED - private company
•  Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Landshut - university
• Fachakademie für Sozialpädagogik der Schulstiftung Seligenthal - training centre

The overall objective is to create the necessary circumstances for single parents to follow a training or to take up a full-time job while at the same time care of their children is ensured. In so doing the project will result in an important contribution to the reduction of the poverty risk among single parents and their children in the Landshut urban area. Single parents employed in healthcare and nursing professions will be offered the opportunity to take on fulltime employment at Lakumed, Klinikum Landshut or Heilig-Geistspitalstiftung and as a result no longer be dependent on state transfer payments. Likewise, single parents employed in child care can successfully complete their further training in the care profession and therefore improve their professional prospects and future opportunities. By offering opportunities for full employment, the single parents can sustainably secure their social and financial status. Child poverty will be tackled, since single mothers will no longer be at risk of poverty. The social inclusion of the children will be secured through fulltime care. The children will grow up in a familiar living environment with persons known to them and hence have better chances to become resilient individuals.

September 2020: A training concept for single parents as qualified specialised pedagogical staff will be drawn up, matching the required state-specified curriculum elements and the particular needs of the target group.
July/August 2021: The construction phase of the two buildings with the rooms for the large-scale day care centres and the single parent households will be completed. The implementation and testing of the housing and care concept of the project can begin.
September 2021: After signing the tenancy agreements, the residents who have been chosen in the selection process and are entitled to occupancy can now move into the completed buildings and the large-scale daycare centres can start operations.
June 2022: The Hochschule Landshut presents the knowledge gained from the project and the results of its research in the form of a policy paper that provides recommendations for municipal authorities and can serve other cities as a handbook for the application of the flexible care concept developed by "home and care".
August 2022: With the handing over of the examination certificates by the Fachakademie Seligenthal on the one hand the successful completion of the child care worker training is documented, as well as on the other hand the success of the newly developed training concept for single parents to qualified, educational staff.