- The spoken word prevails -

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you all to today's opening event. I am delighted that so many of you have accepted my invitation to join me on our journey to make Salzgitter one of the most child- and family-friendly cities in Germany. I would particularly like to welcome Ms. Wenzl, the Children's Commissioner of the City of Stuttgart, who will be speaking to you after my introductory remarks.

Ms. Wenzl: It was you who infected me with your enthusiasm for the topic at this year's Epiphany reception of the Salzgitter-Bad provostry on 6 January this year. Without further ado, we met at my home the next day to discuss the topic in more depth. This rather chance encounter has since developed into a close relationship - between you, my counterpart Dr. Schuster and myself and between our cities. Thank you very much for this!

You, dear Ms. Wenzl, have held your position in Stuttgart for many years and have made a name for yourself in the state capital of Baden-Württemberg and beyond. We are therefore all looking forward to hearing what you have to say on the subject today. I am also delighted that numerous representatives from business, politics, administration, church, kindergartens, schools and associations are taking part in this special and forward-looking kick-off event for Salzgitter.

I would particularly like to welcome the delegation of teachers from our twin town Stary Oskol, who are currently visiting the BBS Fredenberg. This school and School No. 22 in Stary Oskol have been in close contact for many years. A warm welcome!

Lights out, spotlight on!

Ladies and gentlemen,

"Children are our future", "Child-friendly Germany", "A world fit for children", these and similar slogans have been dominating the headlines for some months now. Unfortunately, they are all too often simply bandied about. After all, who doesn't like to adorn themselves with the current hot topic? In Salzgitter, however, child and family friendliness is not just an empty phrase. It is my firm and unwavering political will to take a big step forward in this area together with you! I am therefore talking about the 1st self-imposed central object of my political work as Mayor.

Child and family friendliness is a feeling, an attitude that I want to be anchored in every citizen of Salzgitter. Children should be welcome in Salzgitter! Children should feel at home in Salzgitter!

I would like to briefly illustrate what I mean using myself as an example! I was born here, grew up in an intact parental home, enjoyed going to my school, have strong roots in my circle of friends, neighborhood, church and sports club - right down to my own family. But don't think I didn't have any problems. But I always had trusted people at my side who took me seriously and shared my worries and hardships. You could now say: lucky me! And leave it at that. But that must not happen! The development of our children must not depend on chance or luck! We are all called upon - indeed obliged - to look after the future of every single child.

I don't want you to misunderstand me: I also have in mind the concerns of our elderly people, who deserve humane care. They - our elderly fellow citizens - should not feel forgotten! My parents are in their late 70s and I know what worries them. And I am proud that I can already say that there is a great deal of commitment to children and families in Salzgitter. To name just a few:

• Alliance for a life with children in Salzgitter
• the establishment of the child and family service office
• the launch of the "Wellcome" project by the Protestant Family Education Center
• the "Haus der Familie" project of the Catholic family education center
• the "Big Friends for Youngsters (Biffy)" volunteer agency program under the auspices of the AWO
• the multi-generational house of the Mütterzentrum
• and many, many more.

I would like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved!

My aim now is to strengthen the existing structures, to network them even more and, together with you, to continue to develop this central future topic as a priority.

On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the current situation, the key target figures for Salzgitter that need to be achieved in the long term in all areas of child and family policy are to be defined. I would like to illustrate this with a concrete example: In the 2006 school enrollment survey, around 44% of our primary school children were overweight. The goal could be to reduce this unacceptable percentage to 10% in 7 years. By 5% year on year! Each year it would then be checked whether the annual target is actually achieved or whether further or other measures are needed to counteract it.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does not mean at all that I want to suppress the existing competencies in our city or even organize a competitive event - quite the opposite - I am relying on you! And on the structures, alliances and networks that you have already created. I would like to involve you in this because my goal will not be achievable without you.

Child-friendliness and family-friendliness should also be Salzgitter' s trademark beyond the region. In 2015, Salzgitter should be one of the most child- and family-friendly cities in Germany. I will make a personal and sustained effort to achieve this. A key step was therefore the establishment of the Department for the Promotion of Children and Families and the advertisement for the position of Children's Representative. The children's representative will report directly to me and will work closely with the relevant specialist service to cooperate directly with you in the network. The main tasks will therefore include the planning, coordination and monitoring of municipal activities to increase child and family friendliness.

In practice, this means that every administrative measure is checked to see whether it affects the interests of children and families and, if so, whether it takes appropriate account of them. Providing impetus for a child- and family-friendly business location. The focus of our work here is clearly on discussions and contacts with the companies based in Salzgitter. And the creation and updating of a child and family support plan, on which I will make a specific statement following Ms. Wenzl's speech.

Before I give the floor, however, I have a particularly pleasant task ahead of me. As you will no doubt have seen in the local press, over the summer vacation period I called for the Salzgitter logo to be redesigned as a children's logo. And the response has already deeply impressed me! A total of 36 wonderful, creative suggestions were submitted. They can all be admired in the corridor in the atrium. And I promise you: you will be thrilled too! How much passion and creativity the children - but also the adults - have put into the redesign of our city logo. Immerse yourself in the children's world.

Let the lovingly drawn details in the pictures take you on a journey - into this very children's world. At this point: to all the children and adults who took part in the campaign: Thank you very much! With the help of a jury, a winner had to be chosen from all the entries. The jury, consisting of Ms. Heissenberg from the Salzgitter-Zeitung, Salzgitter AG Executive Board member Dr. Fuhrmann, the Vice President of the Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel University of Applied Sciences Mr. Küch, Jil Grabowski, the child of one of our administrative staff, and myself, selected the winner last Friday.

And the choice really wasn't easy for us. Each logo would have deserved to adorn our letterhead. But there can only be one winner! After an initial round of judging, the logo proposals from Bastiana Baier, Lennart Meyer and Paula Schäfer were shortlisted for the final vote. I am delighted to welcome all three of them here today. Bastiana, Lennart and Paula - please come and join me. Are you excited? What did you draw?

The winning logo will be professionally processed by my colleague Alberto Bertram and can be found on all child and family-related documents in future. The winner will receive an individual prize worth €150. I would now like to ask our youngest jury member to reveal the winning logo. Jil: please reveal the secret! The jury has chosen the logo of Paula Schäfer!

Dear Paula, congratulations and I am delighted to be able to present you with this voucher. Of course I also have something for both of you! (Vouchers are presented to Lennart Meyer (6 years old, 2nd place) and Bastiana Baier (12 years old, 3rd place) Thank you very much and I am really proud of you!

Ladies and gentlemen! In addition to the logo competition, I also called for a drawing competition. Over 150 wonderful suggestions were received. The pictures are on display in the foyer and also invite you to take a look. All children will be invited to a separate event in the ice rink, where there will also be a prize draw among all participants with prizes worth €300. Thank you all very much!

In connection with these painting projects that I have initiated, I would like to talk about the United Kids Foundation, which is very strongly committed to children's projects in the region. The United Kids Foundation is an association of various foundations, initiated by Robert Lüdenhoff, a media manager from Munich. The foundation is currently running fifteen regional projects, including action days in kindergartens and elementary school to protect against sexual violence, therapeutic vacations for traumatized children and workshops at schools on exercise and nutrition.

As a new member of the United Kids Foundation, Salzgitter AG will thankfully be increasingly involved in this area in and for Salzgitter in future - your ideas and creativity for new projects are needed here! I know from many conversations with Dr. Fuhrmann and Bernd Gersdorff, who are unfortunately both unable to attend today, that the company and they personally will support my objectives.

I am pleased to be able to announce the head of the Salzgitter music school, Mr. Herzberg, with children from the music school and their accompaniment. Mr. Herzberg, here you go!

Dear children,

I would like to thank you very much for your wonderful performance and now hand over to Roswitha Wenzl, Children's Commissioner of the City of Stuttgart.

(After Ms. Wenzl's speech, another performance of the children's musical)

Please join me in looking forward to another performance by the music school.

Handing over the vouchers to the children.

Dear Ms. Wenzl, thank you very much for your comprehensive speech. I mean: impressive words! The city of Stuttgart is exemplary in the area of child and family support. It is particularly evident here that the consistent pursuit of objectives with stringent prioritization bears considerable fruit both in the short term, but especially in the long term. I have therefore already initiated the first preparatory measures in Salzgitter before filling the position of Children's Commissioner.

The first step is to take stock of the support, services and approaches available for children and families and to collect all the information required to develop a municipal network. This inventory is to be published as the first part of the concept "Child- and family-friendly city of Salzgitter". The sheets with your signatures in the entrance to the council chamber will be used as cover sheets for the publication and serve as a symbol for the commitment that already clearly exists in Salzgitter in the area of child and family support.

Later, in a second part under the leadership of the children's commissioner, the further development with the associated ideas, goals and measures will be designed. You have already received the proposed outline for the inventory with the invitation to today's event. If you would like to make your expertise available, you can sign in on the lists on display in meeting room 65.

I would now like to introduce you to some very specific examples from this concept and give the floor to Dr. Krum, Head of the Children, Youth and Family Department. I am happy that in Dr. Krum I have a very good colleague for my political objectives, whose high level of expertise is widely recognized.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Kindergarten today means educating, supporting and caring for children. Salzgitter is future-oriented. We must align our actions with this and examine how they can be used to guarantee our objectives in a holistic and sustainable manner. The focus here is on Salzgitter, the child- and family-friendly city and Salzgitter, the learning city; with schools and education representing a central field of action in the complex of child- and family-friendly city.

One question here is: How can the early childhood education system contribute to equitable participation in education and counteract - and I emphasize this - social exclusion from an early age? The daycare center as a child's first educational institution beyond the family is of particular importance here. As a place of learning and living, the daycare center can help to compensate for disadvantages due to a child's background in the early years of life. In addition to high pedagogical quality, the key prerequisites for this are sufficient funding and staffing.

The city of Salzgitter currently invests € 10.6 million in the promotion of children in daycare facilities and day care. These investments in early childhood education are sensible and can help to avoid costly social benefits at a later date. "Taking every child with you" means including instead of excluding, valuing instead of labelling, enabling participation instead of stigmatizing. The results of the working group of daycare center managers have shown that the burden of children with behavioral problems on the day-to-day running of daycare centers is now deplored as the biggest problem in their professional lives.

An increasing number of children are growing up in socially difficult circumstances. These children and their families need targeted support. This is a focus of my specialist service. Good childcare and education services are particularly important in disadvantaged residential areas. Studies on our modern society show that the number of parents who are neither mentally nor practically able to teach their children life skills such as bonding and conflict resolution, perseverance, emotional stability or basic household skills is increasing.

Even with good will, there is a pronounced helplessness to help children succeed at school, which is hardly surprising given the problematic parental "school and education careers". As a result, preventative and socio-spatially oriented cooperation between socio-educational, socio-psychological and family-related health and household services is needed in order to reach children and their parents as early as possible and support them as they grow up.

The aim is to strengthen the skills development of children from disadvantaged backgrounds through preventative settings in and around daycare centers and thus improve children's educational opportunities. We want to rise to this challenge in Salzgitter. No child should be lost! We currently have 44 daycare centers in Salzgitter with a total of 133 groups. There are 3,009 places available for three to six-year-olds. According to the 2006 school entry statistics, 87% of children with a legal entitlement to a kindergarten place attended this facility at least one year before starting school.

This figure will certainly increase significantly in the future following the introduction of the contribution-free last year of nursery school - i.e. the resulting demand, together with the development of birth rates, must be closely monitored in terms of social planning and, if necessary, met with the construction of additional facilities, as 100% utilization over three years is desirable in terms of educational policy (education and support).

At present, around 3,175 children across the city would statistically have a legal entitlement to a nursery place, taking into account the birth years 2001(half) to 2004, as the nursery year begins at the start of the school year and the legal entitlement ends when the child starts school. On the initiative of the Lord Mayor, my department is preparing a family-friendly reduction in daycare fees!

In terms of education policy, the aim is to ensure that every child in Salzgitter can attend a daycare center from the age of three. This early support lays the foundation for a better start at school and the possibility of higher school-leaving qualifications, as Salzgitter still has some catching up to do here compared to the rest of the country, which we now want to reduce. A population with high educational qualifications has a positive effect on Salzgitter as a business location. We also need to respond to the predicted additional demand for childcare for the under-threes.

There are 65 nursery places available for this age group in Salzgitter. Up to three children under the age of three can be accommodated in regular groups. Across the city, 133 children under the age of three are cared for in daycare centers. 44 children in this age group are looked after in day care. The aim is to meet 35% of demand by 2013. As the number of births in Salzgitter has remained almost unchanged or risen slightly since 2003 and demand is expected to increase after the age of one following the introduction of parental allowance, there is a planned need for 597 childcare places for children under the age of three.

In many day nurseries, it will be possible to meet the growing demand by converting regular kindergarten groups into mixed-age family groups. Another pillar of flexible demand coverage in Salzgitter is the expansion of child day care. The Family Service Office for Child Day Care, which opened on August 1, 2007, is particularly worthy of mention here, and the creation of flexible childcare times and new services that are stringently geared to the needs of parents in the respective city area have top priority. Here we rely on close collaboration and good cooperation with the providers of the daycare centers, which in Salzgitter are 100% independently run.

Parents have a real variety of providers to choose from for their childcare in Salzgitter. In addition to the Protestant and Catholic churches, the AWO, the DRK, the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband, the SOS-Mütterzentrum and four parents' initiatives run the daycare centers. Since the establishment of the municipal family service office for child day care in the specialist department for children, youth and family on August 1, 2007, a total of 6 employees have been working to place children in child day care in line with demand. The office complex was set up around a play area in the specialist service and is accessible for the disabled.

The concept for this project was submitted as part of the state program "Families with a future - educating and caring for children". Childcare facilities in Salzgitter will be able to be developed much more flexibly and in line with demand. The focus is on

→ Child day care coordination with placement, support and advice for day care relationships (since 1.8.07, 20 requests for child day care placement have been accepted and 16 placements have been made. At the same time, 18 new interested persons were found for day care training).

→ Networking and quality development of reliable day care, further development of the training program and concept development for substitute networks

→ Supporting childminders and parents in the area of child language development and educational play box rental

→ Specialist advice with a focus on health education.

The family service office is accompanied by model projects from various cooperation partners. The Protestant Family Education Center offers the support programs "Opstapje" and "Wellcome for Families". In addition, the EFB, in cooperation with the Catholic Family Education Center, has put together an interesting training program for daycare workers based on the 160-hour curriculum of the German Youth Institute.

The AWO district association organizes the qualification in cooperation with other providers and promotes language-oriented guidance for socially disadvantaged families with the "Rucksack" project. The German Red Cross offers preventative training for children. Both the EFB and the SOS Mothers' Centre organize childcare services for children during the vacations. A model day care center is also being set up there. In cooperation with the daycare centers in the city, decentralized family service centers are also to be developed in various parts of the city.

But a lot is already happening! We want to build on this! We need to structure the diversity in such a way that the options for help become even more transparent. The entire Family Service project is being funded with 466,000 euros, 50% of which is being provided by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Social Affairs, Women, Family and Health. The remaining 233,000 euros are provided by the city of Salzgitter to cover the annual work. The project will initially run for four years.

Salzgitter is the third largest business location in Lower Saxony. Today, companies with growth targets are increasingly forced to deploy their workforce as efficiently as possible, and conventional working time regulations are often being abolished. Employees are expected to be extremely flexible. An answer must also be found here under the keyword "family/work balance". It must be possible to tailor child daycare even more flexibly to individual, even exceptional, needs.

In reality, this flexibility cannot always be achieved through day care, as day carers are usually also tied to their families. The establishment of a company daycare center in cooperation with large companies or chamber representatives can be a contemporary answer here. Companies could book regular places for their employees. With places kept free on a pro rata basis, which enable flexible occupancy through an internet-based booking system, a service is created that meets individual special needs.

This also includes emergency care, including in the evenings, outside regular care hours. As Salzgitter has a significant commuter surplus with regard to the large companies, it is to be expected that numerous places will be taken by children from outside the city. This form of provision can therefore only be realized in cooperation with companies, i.e. interested providers must enter into negotiations. The best offer will be awarded the contract.

In Salzgitter, 47% of children of kindergarten age now have a migration background, i.e. at least one parent was not born in Germany. This situation calls for major integration efforts. Linguistic expression plays a key role here, making integration possible in the first place. But you too, ladies and gentlemen, are called upon to openly accept these children in your institutions and clubs and to provide them with the opportunity of diverse language training in German through conscious language support in your institution and to make your contribution to integration.

As part of the state guidelines for language support in primary schools, the state subsidy of 206,000 euros has been increased by 300,000 euros in the 2007/2008 kindergarten year. This means that a total of 867 children in small groups can receive differentiated support in the 30 day nurseries that reported a need for language support. Approx. 440 hours per week are financed with the total funding amount of 506,000 euros - adding up to 11.3 additional posts.

In terms of practical work, the weekly hours of an experienced educator with additional qualifications in language support have been increased in each of the 30 daycare centers and an additional specialist has been hired. As a result, there is no longer any need for time-consuming travel and the support is provided directly to the child. Furthermore, multiplier training is offered in cooperation with the Volkshochschule for all educators in language support, so that language support is incorporated into the day-to-day work of the daycare centers for all children.

The immense efforts of all clubs, organizations and associations in the children and youth sector should also not be forgotten here. Because one thing is clear - if you want to communicate, you have to speak the same language as the person next to you! Another goal is the further development of daycare centers into centers for families. Adapting the opening hours of daycare centers to the needs of parents, flexible childcare hours, expanding the age groups to include children under three and over six years of age and the option of being able to take a child outside of daycare center opening hours in an emergency should provide families in Salzgitter with a great deal of support in the future.

Daycare centers are to develop into "centers for families". The city wants to offer independent providers support in this way. What is offered in detail should be based on the different needs of families and the local daycare profile. These can be

- additional flexible special care services, including household relief services;
- Support services when mothers are ill; counseling and educational services in the daycare centers;
- meeting places and general leisure activities related to the family;
- but also offers relevant to the labor market.

Exemplary developments on this path at the individual daycare centers are to be documented in particular and awarded as "best practice" as a learning field and inspiration for the municipal daycare landscape.

I now come to another very important topic: cooperation between daycare centers and schools:
In practice, it is important that childcare facilities cooperate with elementary school at a very early stage and vice versa. This is an opportunity, for example, to offer more pre-school educational activities in kindergartens and thus better prepare children for everyday school life - but also to enable individual learning and support in elementary school based on the abilities and development of the individual child - the keyword here is differentiated teaching.

The aim must be to optimally prepare children for school! The state program "Brückenjahr" of the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs as part of the 100 million funding program "Families with a Future", in which the city of Salzgitter is actively involved, is concerned with the further development of cooperation between day nurseries and schools. The city of Salzgitter can award 20 hours per week to daycare centers twice for a period of two years with an annual grant of €21,360. This supports the cooperation between nursery teachers and primary school teachers at the participating institutions and intensifies the support measures for nursery children in the year before they start school.

Some daycare centers and schools have made an important contribution to quality development by developing various concepts. They are supported by the specialist service in further project development and evaluation. The results of their work will be available to all daycare centers so that the next applicants in 2009 can build on this experience. The other daycare centers will also be supported in their cooperation efforts by my specialist service in close cooperation with the specialist service for education.

The future vision is to clarify the situation of children and their families in Salzgitter through regular reporting. This includes, for example, quantitative information on the number of early school leavers or the childcare rate for the under-threes, as well as parental satisfaction with childcare at elementary school. As a follow-up project to the PRINT prevention project, the state of Lower Saxony has launched the NIKO project with guidelines for the promotion of projects to strengthen educational, parenting and health skills in cooperation between youth welfare services, schools and families.

There are many overweight children in the city of Salzgitter. While only 10% of children were overweight in 2000, 35% were overweight at the time of school enrolment examinations in 2005 and 43.8% in 2006, which means that the figure is over 50% in some cases! This cannot be right! Our goal must therefore be to reduce the rate to below 10%! This means that everyone involved with children urgently needs to take action! The figures in the Fredenberg social city area are particularly striking. This is where the NIKO project comes in, which the Diakonisches Werk Salzgitter is implementing in the Fredenberg redevelopment area with municipal funding of €12,286 and the same amount of state funding. The aim of the project is to promote healthy eating and exercise among children of primary school age with a migration background and to support and train parents on development issues and healthy eating.

Parents receive support in the education of their children in the areas of health, school and social development. Through cooperation with several institutions (school, child protection association, sports club, specialist service for children, youth and family), the children and parents are to be reached and supported through direct contact or referral to the institutions. The project starts from the well-integrated district meeting point "Diakonietreff" with the cooperation schools Grundschule Dürerring and Grundschule Fredenberg. For reasons of sustainability, the aim is to continue the project after the first project phase until 31.12.07 in the following years with a funding amount of 50,000 euros each, 50% state and 50% city of Salzgitter, so that the number of children of normal weight and those who are motorically fit increases significantly.

Everyone is talking about demographic change. In Salzgitter, there are institutions that have been attracting nationwide attention for years for their successful cooperation between the generations. The SOS Mothers' Center in Salzgitter-Bad has been known worldwide since Expo 2000 at the latest. This center is run under the motto "Everything under one roof". It houses a day care center with 72 places (crèche, kindergarten and after-school care) in four mixed-age groups for children with and without disabilities and of all nationalities; in addition, there is open, flexible child and student care daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with opportunities for play and activities while mothers, fathers and grandparents are at the center.

There is a common everyday life for four generations in the house. They work and live together. A youth workshop also provides support when starting out in working life. Children live in the multi-generational house like in an extended family. Opportunity structures create everyday encounters between young and old. The elderly are well accommodated in a family-like atmosphere in the integrated day care center for the elderly. There are joint activities for young and old, such as Punch and Judy shows and music and dance. This multi-generational house is developed and expanded year after year in close cooperation with the city's specialist education, social services and children, youth and family departments.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you can see, the subject matter is very comprehensive and the individual fields of action are too large and varied to be described in detail here. Nevertheless, I hope that I have been able to give you a brief overview of the areas of day nurseries, company nurseries, language support, family centers, cooperation between nurseries and schools, health and multi-generational conflicts. After the joint survey, you will be able to follow the individual fields of action in concrete terms in printed form. Our goal can only be to effectively bring about an improvement in all areas in which we identify deficits. I believe we are on the right track! I would like to thank you for your attention and hand the floor back to our Lord Mayor, Mr. Klingebiel.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Education is a central key to the future viability of a society. Schools are generally the central institutions that provide this education. Schools create and distribute opportunities in life. They have become places where destinies are formed and corrected. We want schools in Salzgitter where our children are optimally supported and challenged, where everyone is important and no one is left behind! This requires the joint efforts of all! An overall system of education, upbringing and care should become a reality in Salzgitter! We form a community of responsibility of all those who work towards this goal!

The most important task of schools is learning: We need a new learning culture that enables lifelong, independent learning, systematically uses new media and is realistic and practice-oriented. The aim is to improve the spatial conditions for a good learning atmosphere. Because you learn better in a good working environment! The city of Salzgitter has therefore launched a 50 million program to refurbish the schools, which will be completed in 10 years at the latest. The schools will be given more money to support their independence and thus promote qualitative development - a qualitative development that will lead to better schooling. This means improving the life chances of our children and young people by improving their educational opportunities.

A child- and family-friendly city also includes all-day schools, of which we already have 10. I won't hide the fact that one or two of them still have room for development. Furthermore, we provide budget funds for afternoon care as a voluntary service. Not everything that would make educational sense can be influenced by the municipality; a dialog with the state is necessary here, I am thinking in particular of the supply of teachers and class sizes. I have 2 school-age children myself and know what is going on from a parent's perspective. For example, 29 children in one class is definitely too many for me! Teachers can hardly cope with such a large number of children. Frustration among teachers, pupils and parents is inevitable! As a result, too many children fall by the wayside!

We want a diverse school landscape in Salzgitter with a wide range of offers and profiles, only in this way can we do justice to the most varied talents, abilities and skills. That is why we are abolishing existing school boundaries to give parents and children a choice. This will lead to more competition and profile development among schools.

Ladies and gentlemen,

School is more than an institution in which predefined goals are to be achieved in predefined forms and with predefined means. In schools, people learn with and from each other; school is an important part of life. For this, schools need freedom, freedom to shape, to respond to situations and people, to current needs and to exploit the opportunities for learning and further development that are available on site. Schools must therefore not be managed statically, they must be able to develop themselves, which is why we support the path to independent schools.

Let me conclude by quoting the central school statement of the Hauptschule Fredenberg:

"Everyone can do something. No one can do everything. Everyone is needed. No one is left to their own devices." That, ladies and gentlemen, is a guiding principle that applies to all schools and also to the child- and family-friendly city of Salzgitter.

Ladies and gentlemen,

According to a 2006 study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung Aktion 2050 "Wegweiser Demographischer Wandel 2020", Salzgitter is classified under Cluster 2 "Shrinking cities in post-industrial structural change". Families no longer dominate the urban climate here. Prof. Strohmeier speaks of a world of two childhoods: Some grow up well cared for and well supported, while others have very poor starting conditions for life as a whole; educational opportunities do not reach them.

In order to achieve positive changes at a local level, all local players are called upon - especially in the area of reconciling family and career, important accents can be set here. The study provides us with recommendations for action:

1. counteract social segregation and pursue an active integration policy
2. strengthen civic responsibility.
3. live child and family friendliness, i.e: Attracting young parents, making it easier to have children, securing, expanding and marketing child- and family-friendly qualities and building a child-friendly image.

This is the path I have chosen. The aim is to reach Cluster 5, "Stable large cities with a high proportion of families", in one of the future studies. Here, it would then "only" be a matter of living child and family friendliness and further developing residential districts to connect generations, as well as securing retail centrality and sharpening the city's image.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Municipal family policy is not just a question of money, but in particular of emotional commitment, which opens up new solutions to the problems of families. I would like to see a targeted, consistent and, above all, joint approach to our common goal. All areas of life are in demand - the family network, the world of work, politics, leisure, etc. The clockwork will only run perfectly and smoothly if all the gears mesh.

Salzgitter is a member of the "Cities for children" network at European level, is involved in the "United Kids Foundation" at regional level and is part of the "Alliance for a life with children" in the city - which we will build on. This is precisely my goal and I hope our common goal for Salzgitter. I would like to work with you with commitment, a wealth of ideas and, above all, a lot of joy to ensure that families feel at home in our Salzgitter.

I hope that more people in Salzgitter will decide to realize their desire to have children. I want to create an environment for the children of our city in which they can grow up carefree and give them the best possible starting conditions for the rest of their lives. It will certainly be a long and not always easy road to get there, but the first steps have been taken today - Salzgitter has set out on the path to becoming a child- and family-friendly city!

I would like to thank Ms. Wenzl and Dr. Krum very much for their support. (Handing over a bouquet of flowers) Afterwards, I would ask you to join me in the atrium for drinks and a light snack. Thank you for your attention, I look forward to continuing to work together for Salzgitter - The child and family-friendly city.