structural development

What visions does the young generation have for Lusatia?

"We give the voices of the young generation in Lusatia more hearing!" says Saskia Brosius beaming.

She and the ENO innovation team regularly hold workshops at schools to discuss and develop the ideas of the young people from Lusatia for the future of the region. Because: the innovation team of the Taskforce Structural Change not only works with the municipalities, associations and companies in the district, but also actively strives to sensitize early on to the topic of structural change and to involve young people.

The woman in her mid-twenties finished university not too long ago and brings with her the enthusiasm that she conveys in the workshops from home. "I myself went away after school to study, to see the world and to help shape my home here with the impulses from 'out there'." she explains convincingly. A stroke of luck not only for the ENO, but for the entire district, because Saskia studied creativity and innovation and knows exactly how to develop ideas from impulses, concepts from ideas - and also how to implement concepts.

How did the work in schools come about?

"The young people are the future of the district - it is quite clear that they must be involved when it comes to developing their future prospects!" explains Saskia. The involvement of young people began with the offer of an information event to which Sven Backhausen and Saskia Brosius invited representatives of the district's high schools. Four schools took part - and the exchange was extremely important. Originally, the innovation team wanted to hold project days with the students and develop visions. However, it quickly became clear to the teachers that structural change had hardly been addressed in the curricula and that not only project days full of ideas were needed, but first of all the transfer of knowledge:

What is structural change?

What does that mean for the region and how does that concern me as a young person?

Can I get involved?

So it happened that our innovation team has been to schools more and more in the last few weeks.

For two days at the Zinzendorf School in Herrnhut, the team designed a 90-minute format in which the 10-1 and 10-2 students were introduced to the current structural change process and wrote their own, unconventional definitions of structural change. Class 10-1 understands structural change as follows: “For us, structural change is positive change that goes hand in hand with innovation, infrastructure development, education and the expansion of the suburbs. By involving society – with the aim of empowering the youth!”

In the second half of the format, the class played the new structural change simulation game "Torfitz", which was recently developed Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) In the game, the players slip into different roles in different communities that are confronted with specific challenges. Concrete solutions to these challenges must be found in a creative and collaborative manner. After the game it became clear: The students see change as an opportunity to do things better!

at the Free School in Boxberg in cooperation with the German Children and Youth Foundation (DKJS) . The more than 28 students in the 7th grade worked in four groups and developed ideas that could improve the lives of the younger generation in the Boxberg community. At the end of the day they had to decide on two ideas that received financial support of 2038€ from the DKJS. The students chose the ideas named “DAS Nacho-Kino” and “Spielraum”. Wilhelmine from the innovation team will accompany the cinema project until it is implemented.

At the Landau-Gymnasium in Weißwasser, a format similar to that in Herrnhut was planned for the 11th grade social studies/legal education/economics (GRW) course. However, the weather threw a spanner in the works for the team. Due to the high temperatures, a 90-minute format became a 60-minute format that Saskia and Lars were allowed to fill. So it was decided to deviate a bit from the plan and give the students a chance to ask any questions they had about structural change… that was a lot!

In the last week of school before the summer holidays, the second appointment took place at the Landau-Gymnasium in Weißwasser, this time as a project day with the aim of developing visions for the future. The 25 pupils from the 9th grade went to Berlin and were given observation tasks, which they should use to compare life in the city with life in the country. The excursion served Clara and Saskia as a basis for the subsequent workshop design, because the observations became questions and the questions became wishes - and the wishes ultimately became visions. At the end of the process, the student groups presented two visions for a diverse range of clubs, bars and festivals, as well as the vision of more frequented public transport without long waiting times. The fourth vision is to establish a new delivery service system in Weißwasser and the surrounding area and the last group presented the vision of a sports school.

All the dates in the schools, no matter how different they were, created immense added value for learners and teachers - and also inspired us enormously. We are very pleased that we are already receiving inquiries for the new school year. In addition, it is already certain that the team will also go to the high schools in Zittau and Löbau with different formats. We are happy that we can draw a very positive conclusion from all these different formats.

As a school, class, association or initiative, are you also interested in a discussion, a visit or a workshop with the Inno team? This email address is being protected from spam bots! To display JavaScript must be turned on. We look forward to you!

Best regards!

Your Saskia