Apply for funding from the ESF Plus program "JUGEND STÄRKEN - Brücken in die Eigenständigkeit"

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) uses the European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) to support local authorities in providing local youth welfare services. Support is provided through the ESF Plus federal program "JUGEND STÄRKEN: Brücken in die Eigenständigkeit (JUST BEst)". The aim of the program is to enable young people to live independently and to place them in stable housing.

As a public provider of local youth welfare services (youth welfare office), you can apply for funding. Your task is then to plan, manage and coordinate the program. You work closely with independent youth welfare organizations, job centers, employment agencies and other cooperation partners.

The program is aimed at people between the ages of 14 and 26. The two target groups are specific:

• Young people who receive child and youth welfare services and require further support after these services have ended. The program primarily addresses care leavers, i.e. young people who are leaving residential youth care.
• Young people who do not receive child and youth welfare services and require socio-educational support.

In order to achieve the program objectives, 4 methodological building blocks are funded per project, on the basis of which the municipalities can design and implement needs-based projects for the respective target group or target groups. The 4 methodological building blocks are

• Case management,
• Outreach youth social work
• Low-threshold counseling and clearing
• Testing new forms of housing

Case management:

• Intensive and long-term socio-pedagogical individual case work and support for young people.
• Support is provided over certain stages of life and development as well as across individual legal groups and services.

Outreach youth social work:

• Socio-pedagogical casework with young people who cannot find their way to support services on their own.
• They are visited by socio-pedagogical specialists in their homes or in the places where they usually stay due to homelessness. This could be a youth club, a place to "hang out", an emergency shelter or on the street.

Low-threshold counseling or clearing:

• Short-term, individual socio-educational counseling and support measures.
• These are provided by a counseling or clearing center that serves as a "first point of contact" for young people.

Testing new forms of housing:

• Creation of various forms of housing for young people (not yet available in the respective municipality) and model testing of placement in the respective housing project.
• The young people and young adults receive individual socio-educational support. Innovative concepts such as the so-called Housing First approach can also be tested, provided that a minimum level of socio-pedagogical support for the young people is ensured. Housing first refers to various approaches that attach no or only a few conditions to obtaining housing.

Type and scope

The funding is paid out as a grant. The subsidy rate is 40 percent for more developed regions and 60 percent for transition regions. The maximum grant amount is EUR 200,000 per year and EUR 83,333.33 for 2022. This means that a maximum grant of EUR 1,083,333.33 is possible for the ESF Plus funding period from 2022 to 2027.

Applications are approved by the Service Center at the Federal Office of Family Affairs and Civil Society Functions (BAFzA).