Whoever answers the 40 questions in full can choose a chocolate bar: In this way, Hans Amann and his colleagues from the Unterschleißheim youth center track 1 try to convince their young visitors to take part in the youth survey of the district youth council (KJR) until Tuesday. Since February 1st, the KJR has been asking children and young people about their needs, wishes and attitudes. Because the survey is digital, the youth social worker hands out the youth center tablets to people who don’t have a smartphone. From time to time, questions of understanding arise, and Amann has to explain individual terms to the younger ones in particular.
In addition to the youth survey, the social worker organizes fundraisers for the Ukraine with the other youth workers from Track 1 or plans events, such as the “Burger Party and Games” event for next Saturday. There, boys can fry burgers together and let off steam with active games. The man from Platform 1, who is more a train attendant than a conductor, knows from experience how important it is to offer events separated by gender from time to time. “Young people can then address issues that are still associated with shame.”
The fact that he also has to work on Saturdays for such campaigns is part of the job, says Amann. When he’s not making burgers, he looks after the house bands and the youth center’s recording studio. “I think it’s particularly important to support local artists who aren’t that big yet.” He has also been making music privately for many years, playing the guitar. As a teenager he sang in the choir. At the age of 16 he got a taste of the youth work of the Protestant church, followed by an internship in the federal voluntary service and a degree in Landshut. “It was never an option for me to do anything else,” says the 31-year-old.
In 2019 he started at track 1 in Unterschleißheim, six months before the corona pandemic paralyzed everyday life at the facility. How the restrictions have affected the lives of young people is also a topic of the KJR survey. According to Amann, if track 1 was allowed to open, it was an important compensation for the children and young people. Many would have sat on the computer or mobile phone almost the whole day. The youth center offered the opportunity to take them out of the digital world for a while.