Summer cottage in the garden city: Social space youth work

This book is about the evaluation of the socio-spatial experiment Sommerdatscha 08, which was carried out in June 2008 at the OJA Offene Jugendarbeit Schwamendingen (Open Youth Work Schwamendingen) and answers the question: Do young people need spaces that they can design themselves and manage autonomously or semi-autonomously? This project, which lasted about a month, involved a wooden barrack that was built and painted with the young people. The Sommerdatscha replaced the youth club for a month. Throughout the project, the young people were offered a wide variety of creative, sporting and leisure activities. The project was a success. They were able to build something together that they were proud of and learn in a social and practical sense. I would answer the above question with yes; however, I would replace the word 'autonomous' with 'self-managed'. The young people considered the self-managed nights to be the highlight. In future projects, self-management should be adapted to the young people's level of development. The summer dacha was an innovative project that has already been repeated several times.