Educational counseling centers; application for funding

Purpose

With this funding program, the Free State of Bavaria supports the administrative districts and independent cities that, in cooperation with the independent youth welfare organizations, provide sufficient and appropriate educational counseling centers to fulfill the following tasks.

Object

The objects of support are

• Promotion of parenting in the family (§ 16 SGB VIII),
• Counseling in matters of partnership, separation and divorce (§ 17 SGB VIII),
• Counseling and support in the exercise of personal care (§ 18 SGB VIII),
• Educational counseling (§ 28 SGB VIII taking into account §§ 27, 36, 41 SGB VIII),
• Integration assistance for mentally disabled children and young people (Section 35a (1) No. 1 SGB VIII).

Recipients of funding

Funding is provided to the providers of educational counseling centers that are part of the local psychosocial basic care and crisis support for young people and families.

Eligible costs

Funding is provided for personnel costs for

• preventive support for parenting in the family, especially in stressful situations
• preventive multiplier work, in particular cooperation with day care centers, schools, family education centers, early intervention centers, family courts and self-help groups (e.g. single parents, foster and/or adoptive parents) as well as social space orientation,
• outreach educational counseling in places where children and their families are present, as well as binding cooperation with youth welfare, health, justice and school facilities and services to ensure that children and families can be reached at the lowest possible threshold and, if necessary, receive holistic help. Possible forms of services include regular consultation hours and topic-specific services in facilities other than the educational counseling center itself,
• Online-supported digital counseling services,
• information events and public relations work,
• psychological and psychosocial diagnostics,
• Support, improvement, stabilization of the development and social integration of young people with particular difficulties or stressful experiences such as mental, physical and sexual violence,
• short-term crisis intervention,
• Clarification and support in dealing with intra-family relationship conflicts or conflicts between parents and their effects on the children, particularly in the event of separation or divorce,
• Support in the development of an amicable concept for the exercise of parental care, in the child-friendly implementation of contact arrangements and the initiation of visiting contacts (custody and contact mediation),
• Suggesting additional or further measures or assistance, with timely involvement of the youth welfare office, as soon as a need for assistance according to §§ 27 ff. of SGB VIII or § 35a SGB VIII becomes apparent,
• Participation in the preparation, implementation and review of the assistance plan in accordance with § 36 SGB VIII, insofar as educational counseling services are to be provided,
• Cooperation with other relevant disciplines (e.g. pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry and psychotherapy),
• Quality assurance, in particular cost/benefit efficiency and review of measures and results for effectiveness (evaluation).

Type and amount

The funding is granted as a subsidy.

Funding is provided as fixed-amount funding within the framework of project funding.

Educational counseling centers are eligible to apply. The following funding requirements must be met by all funded educational counseling centers:

• Professional and multidisciplinary staffing of the counseling center with youth welfare specialists,
• completed psychological/psychotherapeutic university studies or socio-educational university studies with a Master's or Bachelor's degree (formerly Diplom),
• other specialists in the social sciences, education or medicine as well as with a degree in curative education can also be considered if their qualifications strengthen the professional profile of the counseling center,
• comparable foreign degrees can also be considered, regardless of state recognition; in this case, the professional assessment is the responsibility of the respective educational counseling center together with the public youth welfare agency,
• Staffing a counseling center with at least three specialist staff positions and an appropriate team assistant.

The team of specialists should have different relevant degrees in order to ensure multidisciplinary staffing. Attention should be paid to an appropriate proportion of university degrees at Master's level.

Applications can be submitted for a period of up to two years. The application of the provider of the educational counseling center must be submitted electronically or in writing to the responsible youth welfare office in good time using the form available from the responsible granting authority together with the application documents. In the case of cooperation with another counseling center, the nature and scope of this cooperation must be described. The youth welfare office will forward the application to the approval authority before the start of the approval period. It will briefly comment on the eligibility for funding and the nature and scope of its cooperation with the provider. If a district or an independent city maintains its own educational counseling center, its applications must also be submitted to the approval authority before the start of the approval period.

Currently, no further educational counseling centers are included in the funding (see No. 4.3 of the guideline)!

There are no fixed deadlines for this funding.

• Required document/s
  
  • Application for approval of a state grant: Funding program: Funding of educational counseling centers
  • Personnel costs for permanent staff: Appendix 1 to the application for approval
  • Cost overview: Annex 2 to the application for approval
  • Financing plan: Annex 3 to the application for approval