The guidelines, or more precisely "Guidelines - City with a Future", are a program for the future that was launched by Mayor Frank Klingebiel on 7 February at the Hotel am See in Salzgitter-Lebenstedt. The city of Salzgitter is thus continuing to shape its child, family and education policy. The working groups have been formed to develop a package of ideas and proposals on which the city council will make a fundamental decision.
Klingebiel hopes that the groups will come up with "self-determined answers" to demographic developments and Salzgitter's educational landscape. With this process, the city could write local political history. He expects a critical and creative discussion. The group of participants is made up of representatives from associations, business, clubs, parties, institutions, churches, the city administration and private individuals.
In the working groups, criteria are to be developed for all subject areas and backed up with measurable parameters. The impact on the demographic development of the city, a consistent children and family policy and the expansion of a progressive educational landscape must be decisive for all projects to be discussed. And these criteria must stand up to objective scrutiny against the background of the budgetary situation.
The following working groups were formed: Child and family-friendly learning city, care and education, education, schools, extracurricular learning, culture, integration, housing and infrastructure, sport and leisure, health, old and active, safety, business location; facilities, initiatives, churches; and council resolutions.
An academic group led by Professor Dr. Jan Schilling from the Municipal University for Administration in Lower Saxony (HSVN) surveyed the 265 participants anonymously for the first time from March to May 2011. They wanted to find out
- Composition of the groups (gender, age, project group and function)
- Motives for participating in the project
- Agreement with the strategic direction of the city
- Assessment of interest and importance of the project topics
- Expectations of the project
- Expectations of the work in the project group
A total of 23 questions had to be answered, 119 participants (44.9 percent) completed the questionnaire.
It emerged that 106 of the participants agreed with Mayor Frank Klingebiel's strategic vision of making Salzgitter the most child- and family-friendly city in Germany. 94 participants were convinced that this goal would be achieved. The majority see themselves as stakeholders, which was the third most important motive after "interest in the topic" and "connection with the city". A good business location was named as the most important topic (ahead of Salzgitter as a child and family-friendly learning city, housing, integration and schools). (The results of the survey in full detail can be downloaded at the bottom of this page).
In the fall, the participants in the working groups will be surveyed a second time by the scientific team to see whether their views on the project, the mission statement and their work in the project groups have changed.
