Children and Young People
Support services for children and youth at risk of poverty – learning cafés, mobile family assistance, mother-and-child shelters, youth counseling, and educational support provided by Caritas Austria © Jork Weismann
Although Austria is a wealthy industrialized nation, an alarming number of children are affected by poverty. Child poverty does not merely entail material deprivation. It excludes children, limits their social interactions, and takes a toll on their health.
Child poverty is also family poverty and affects every aspect of life: for example, it makes it impossible to participate in school events or invite friends over. Going on vacation is rarely or never possible, and living conditions are cramped and often damp.
Education is a key factor in preventing poverty. However, educational opportunities in Austria are still heavily dependent on household income: children from households at risk of poverty are significantly less likely to attend the lower level of an AHS (academic high school) than children from high-income families.
But even abroad, children are often prevented from growing up with opportunities because they grow up in broken families marked by violence, abuse, or neglect. Furthermore, children whose parents face a wide range of problems are often placed in residential care too quickly. These facilities typically lack the adequate staff and resources to provide the children with the necessary closeness and warmth or to support them according to their abilities so that they can develop to their fullest potential.
As an endowment contributor, you are free to select a project to be implemented:
Support for families in need
- Mobile family assistance
- Mother and child homes
- Support for children with physical and/or mental impairments
- Vacation care programmes
Lerncafés (Learning spaces)
- Learning support in a nationwide network of Lerncafés in Austria
Caritas Vocational Schools - Child day care facilities
- Counselling
- Psychotherapy
Youth Counselling
- Employment projects
- Learning support
- Street work
Your endowment contribution supports children and young people in need
Across Austria, over 2,100 children and young people are currently being supported in 54 Lerncafés (learning spaces). Another 860 interested learners are on the waiting list for a place in a Lerncafé - the demand exceeds the limit of the waiting lists. Your personal endowment with a contribution of EUR 100,000 could finance a Lerncafé of your choice for two years.