Linke on families

The Left wants to keep and expand non-commercial meeting places for young people such as youth clubs, adventure playgrounds and libraries. Every district should have at least one self-managed youth space. It also rejects Bundeswehr recruiting aimed at young people in public spaces and wants to abolish police stops without suspicion.

Young people need places where they can meet. They should not have to pay there. The Left wants to keep and expand youth clubs and similar places. Every district should have one place that young people run themselves. Police should no longer stop people without a reason.

Spaces should be easier to use in the evening and in bad weather, in part through cooperation between youth work and neighborhood centers and cultural and sports clubs. The platform regards youth clubs as suitable places for civic education and easy-access participation. Urban and green-space planning should consider young people's needs, such as enough park benches. The party rejects the armed forces approaching young people, for example at neighborhood festivals. In its view, stops without suspicion disproportionately affect young people assumed to have a migration background.

The Left wants to shield child and youth services from budget cuts and fund them long term rather than project by project. Money is to be earmarked, and staff are to be paid under collective agreements. The platform argues that relationship-based work with young people requires continuity.

The Left wants to protect services for children and young people. Money should no longer come only for short projects. Money meant for youth clubs should really reach the youth clubs. Staff should be paid under a union wage agreement.

The party wants to strengthen municipal services while continuing to work with nonprofit independent providers that are bound by collective agreements. It is examining longer grant periods and, in the medium term, seeks a new funding model that moves away from project logic. Following the model of the youth promotion law (JugFöG), funds for all child and youth services are to be earmarked so that districts cannot spend them elsewhere. Collective agreements are to apply in grant-funded work and at public and independent providers, and works councils and staff councils are to be supported. In child-rearing support cases, young people are to share in decisions, and independent arbitration and ombuds offices are to be expanded. Poverty alone should never be the reason for separating children from their parents.

The Left wants better protection for young people who drop out of youth welfare services when they turn 18. The transition into adult life is to be strengthened with new concepts and more funding. According to the platform, many so-called care leavers otherwise face homelessness in the medium term.

Some young people grow up in group homes or foster families. At 18, many of them lose their support. The Left wants to change that. It wants more money and better plans for this time. This should keep young people from ending up without a home.

The platform points in particular to unaccompanied refugee minors and other care leavers, meaning young people who are leaving the youth welfare system. It notes that a legal entitlement to child-rearing support exists up to age 21, and in justified individual cases up to age 27. The party also cites overstretched youth and social welfare offices. For these reasons, the period after the 18th birthday is to receive stronger planning and funding.

The Left holds an open definition of family and wants to support all family types in everyday life. Single parents and foster families are to get better security. Berlin's family promotion law is to be implemented and developed further.

For the Left, family is where people care for each other. It wants to support all kinds of families. Single parents should get more help and more security. Foster families should not be worse off than other families. Family advice centers should get lasting funding.

Networks for single parents are to be expanded and their social and financial situation improved. Single people who want to take in a foster child are to receive structural and financial help to combine work with foster parenting. Foster families are to be put on an equal economic footing with other families. Families with children who need intensive care are to have regular access to a break of the kind short-term care provides. Through the family promotion law (FamFöG), family centers, family service offices and parenting and family counseling centers are to be secured.

The Left wants the state of Berlin to cover the full cost of Hilfen zur Erziehung (support services for children and families in difficult situations), arguing that district budgets are not sufficient. Youth welfare offices would regain more control, and the city would build up its own public services. Budget pressure should not determine what help an individual receives.

Some children and families in hard situations get special support. The Left wants the state of Berlin to pay for all of it. Youth welfare offices should decide more themselves again. The city should build its own services.

The party wants to give the districts more money and staff and to safeguard quality standards. Publicly run services would mainly cover emergencies and areas where, according to the program, private providers fail. Nonprofit independent providers bound by collective wage agreements would remain partners. A transparent, citywide placement system would assign places solely on professional grounds. The Left is also considering barring profit-oriented corporations from youth welfare services.

The Left wants more staff for the Regionaler Sozialer Dienst (the youth welfare offices' regional social service) so that each caseworker handles fewer cases. The child protection network would continue to be funded and developed. Facilities serving young people would be required to have protection plans against violence.

The regional social service is part of the youth welfare office. It helps families and protects children. The Left wants more staff there. Each worker should have fewer cases. Places for children should make plans to protect them from violence.

On staffing levels, the party aligns itself with the demands of the labor unions. Staff would get a binding right to regular supervision and further training, and staffing and equipment would be reviewed every two years. Administrative support staff and special training modules focused on youth welfare work are to be considered. In child protection, the focus is on prevention and early support; home visits after a birth would be ensured and the public health service properly equipped. Child protection would be part of training for family court work. Protection plans against sexual and physical violence would be drawn up together with the children and young people.

The Left wants to continue and expand Berlin's state programs for single parents. The platform argues that single parents, more than 85 percent of whom are women in Berlin, are especially often affected by insecure working conditions and low pay.

The Left wants to help single parents more. They should find it easier to finish school or job training later. There should be more part-time training places. Childcare should also be available early and late. Single parents who are refugees should get their own programs.

Plans include better ways to complete school and vocational qualifications later, more part-time training places, and reliable long-term counseling and support. Childcare is to be available outside the usual hours so that paid work and taking part in social life become easier. For refugee single parents, tailored offers for language learning and job training are to be expanded and newly created, with barriers to access kept as low as possible. According to the platform, about 30 percent of single mothers in Berlin have a migration background.

The Left wants to strengthen street social work in the districts and expand exit programs because, in its account, right-wing extremists are increasingly recruiting young people. Services against child poverty are to be better coordinated, since the program holds that social injustice makes young people more open to authoritarian thinking.

Right-wing extremists try to win over young people. So the Left wants more social work on the streets. There should be more programs to help people leave the far-right scene. Help against child poverty should work together better.

For acute incidents at youth facilities, there are to be fixed procedures, responsibilities, and reporting channels that de-escalate and protect those affected. Exit programs are to be tailored to specific target groups. Further measures are meant to ease risk factors such as personal experience of violence, poor access to education, and a lack of social and job integration. The Left rejects "accepting youth work" as practiced in the 1990s because, in its view, it promotes right-wing dominance. The party wants to defend the freedom of expression of youth work providers.