Garching – neighborhood help and VHS under one roof – district of Munich

The anticipation is palpable when Maria Esterlechner, Martina Hanuschek and Angelika Faschinger let their eyes wander through the airy room lined with light wood. “It turned out nice, really,” the women agree. A few cables are still hanging out of the walls, plastic sheeting is lying on the floor, a tradesman is standing on a ladder and is just checking the smoke detectors on the ceiling. But in just a few weeks, the people of Garching will fill these rooms with life, both young and old. At least that is the declared goal of Faschinger, Esterlechner and Hanuschek from the Garching neighborhood help. From February onwards, the club will gradually move into its new home. In March, the new family center will open its doors there.

It was a long-cherished wish of the neighborhood help to add such a family center to their wide range of services. The idea was born in 2016. “I know the concept of family centers from my former home in the Ruhr area and I missed it here in Garching,” says Hanuschek. While neighboring communities already operate family centers, Garching initially lacked the space to realize this idea. That is now changing. In 2020, the Garching city council gave the green light for a new house for social and cultural uses on the former post office forecourt on Telschowstrasse. The result is something to be proud of: in just over a year and a half, the Ober- and Unterschleißheim building cooperative erected an imposing building almost 68 meters long – in contrast to other construction sites these days without delay. With its two towers and the wooden slat look, it is without a doubt a new eye-catcher in the city skyline of Garching. In terms of content, it should become a meeting, counseling and educational center for the whole town.

The work on the new quarters of the adult education center and neighborhood help in Garching should be fully completed by February.

(Photo: Catherine Hess/)

“The reception is over there,” says Hanuschek, pointing to a corner of the atrium-like room with a counter. The children’s nurse, who has been on the board of the neighborhood help for seven years and even longer as a course leader, will take over the management of the family center together with a social worker, a teacher and an administrative worker. The heart of the offer is to take place in the airy central room on the ground floor, an open meeting place. “Everyone should be able to drop by for a coffee without obligation,” says Hanuschek. “The generations should meet.” Lectures can also take place in the hall with the floor-to-ceiling windows. In addition, the family center will have two bright group rooms in which, among other things, courses for parents with babies and small children can be held, a health room for yoga, Pekip and more, an event kitchen for cooking courses and a kitchen suitable for children.

Maria Esterlechner, the managing director of the neighborhood help, moves into the tower on the south side with her administration. The service and advice center of the neighborhood help, which was previously at Rathausplatz 1, will find its home on the second floor – of course accessible via a lift. Childcare is also moving. It was very important to the designers that the neighborhood help and its offers can still be seen and reached by everyone directly in the town center, not far from the town hall and pedestrian zone. “We definitely want to keep our low thresholds,” says Esterlechner. They are all the more pleased that the new house is only a stone’s throw away from the previous location.

VHS and neighborhood help have already identified some synergies

In the new building, the neighborhood help is not alone. The North Adult Education Center, which has so far been located on the Mayor-Wagner-Strasse in Garching, moves into the other rooms. “We are very happy that we will be in the house together with the adult education center,” says Faschinger, Chair of Neighborhood Aid. Both sides have already identified some potential for cooperation. For example, the neighborhood help could offer childcare during language courses at the VHS or take over the hospitality at a film screening. The individual rooms should also be used as efficiently as possible.

Garching: So far, the Garching neighborhood help has been at Rathausplatz 1.  The new building is just a stone's throw away on Telschowstrasse.

So far, the Garching neighborhood help has been at Rathausplatz 1. The new building is just a stone’s throw away on Telschowstrasse.

(Photo: Catherine Hess)

According to Hanuschek, this also means that citizens can and should contribute their ideas. Anyone who wants to organize a sewing meeting or would like to pass on other knowledge and skills on a voluntary basis is very welcome to get in touch with the neighborhood help. The new building, which Mayor Dietmar Gruchmann (SPD) has already christened the new “social heart” of Garching, should not only be filled with life by experts, but also by civic commitment, advertises Faschinger. Anyone who discovers that they enjoy volunteering can make a note of April 2023 – that’s when the Garching Neighborhood Aid will elect its new board and would be happy to see reinforcements.

The people in charge of the neighborhood help and the VHS Nord still have to hold out for a few weeks, then the new building will be ready for use. “I’m convinced,” says Esterlechner, “that will be a win for the whole city.”

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