ESC: Volunteering at OJA Dornbirn | Solidarity & Diversity in Vorarlberg

The association Offene Jugendarbeit Dornbirn (OJAD) – Open Youth Work Dornbirn – was founded in 1992 with the purpose to offer young people space for leisure time activities. In the course of time it has been adapting its activities to the changing realities and is now – apart from the leisure time activities – also providing services in the field of education and youth employment. It is financed by the local and regional government. Part of the fundings we get from various projects that we do with different organisations with different focuses (integration, employment, etc.). The team runs two youth centres, two big projects on the topic of education (Albatros – Hauptschulabschluss: Courses for early school leavers) and employment (Job Ahoi!: Job insertion project with manual workshops), and a skateboarding area. The youth centre Vis.m.u.t. (Vision: human dignity and tolerance) accommodates the youth café Vismut which is mainly visited by young people under 16 and the Kulturcafé Schlachthaus where parties, concerts and discussions are organised. The youth centre Arena also runs a youth café and has the focus on sports (tabletop football, skating, basketball etc.). Our target group are young people between 13 and 20 years of Austrian and of migrant origin.