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Third chapter of our conversations with street educators in Prague

These discussions were at a Dynamo International / Street Workers Network meeting of European coordinators held in the spring of 2011 in Prague. On this occasion we speak with Polona Dominik, Nico de Groot and Helmut Steinkellner, Austrian network street workers, who tell us what their daily work is and what are the challenges street work faces.

I'd like you to introduce yourselves: who are you? What do you do?
Dominik Polona: I work in Skala, a Slovenian organization dedicated to outreach work with young people. I’m the director of the organization and I’m as well a street worker
Nico de Groot: I work in Holland.
Helmut Steinkellner: I am coordinator of the network of street workers in Austria.

What difficulties are the people you work with facing?
P.D.: I work with the younger children, and the main problem is that many of them are immigrants from countries of the former Yugoslavia and have fewer opportunities to succeed in life. They live in ghettos in the capital and are on the street all the time. They go to school and have parents, but in their spare time they are all the time in high-risk places under negative influences and need someone to help them with their family or school problems, through animation activities or other actions with which to learn different things.
N: There are many difficulties; one is to know what our job is. Everybody knows, but nobody knows, really. Secondly, we need to think about which things are good and which other things are actual good things. The professionalization of work and the money problem is now increasing the economic crisis.
H: There are different problems among youth in Austria: addictions, sexual violence, etc., that are generating that more and more kids of age 15 or 16 end up on the streets without hopes for the future.

What educational and social practices so you think that should be encouraged to better address the problems that you encounter?
P.D.: The most problematic children are often not in institutions but on the streets, in the open environment. We have to approach them and offer them alternatives, encouraging them to think in the future, to do something good for themselves. We need to convey these issues to politicians because they know nothing of the problems of children, especially those who are most excluded, which no one pays attention to. They only care about them when they go to school, but do not care what happens when they come out of it.
N: I do not know.
H: The greatest need is to have street workers working in the street with young people and share the space with the rest of the population. It's the usual discussion with the police or security members on whether to clean public spaces occupied by young people, thus seeing them as strangers.

What benefits does Dynamo International Street Workers Network provides you with?
PS: We are new on the Network, in the future we will learn and make more contacts in Slovenia with street workers to approach the policies and speak up for the problems of street society and government. In Slovenia the problems of the street are obviated. The youth are obviated as well. If we don’t have a network solving that is very difficult, nearly impossible.
N: The network is a kind of reflection about what we do in our work. We can see what other countries are doing and learn from them. Sometimes you see something and say "Hey! We're doing things right." It's like seeing yourself a mirror, sometimes you can find practical use and sometimes you can contribute your best practices.
H: In the network we have meetings, conferences and do training for beginning street educators, we help the new ones. Now we are trying to write more articles in newspapers, letters, journals, on topics of current social policies, promoting lobbing.

What challenges do you think street workers have ahead of them?
PD: Creating a system for street work or making it stronger, because Slovenia is not a powerful country. We have to adopt a structure, learn from other countries, and hold meetings in order to grow. We must cover more parts of the city, and although now we get closer, we must be aware that street work is very important. I think the network can contribute to this.
N: It's the usual discussion on whether street education is a profession or not. The most important change is stating that it is a profession. The biggest challenge is to think: Why is it a profession?
H: I hope we increase our influence over social policies and invest more money in these services that I consider effective. It is a big part of prevention that we must achieve, and I think people should pay more attention to it.

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