We are a Catholic parish in the 15

We are a Catholic parish in the 15. district of Vienna. We regard our parish work as not limited through any culture, religion, party or nationality. Especially as believers we experience working with all people of good will as an enrichment. We have ten employees and hundred other people of our parish help us in our work. Our parish is built up in three communities: Neufünfhaus, Rudolfsheim and Schönbrunn-Vorpark. Neufünfhaus - as a former parish - has been participating in EVS since 2001 and most of our experiences were good ones. This district is a problematic area. Due to the high percentage of foreigners 50%, from more than 100 nations, a lot of problems but also opportunities and challenges occur. As many parents go to work, many children and young people spend their leisure time in parks and in the streets. In the parish there are various groups for children and young people. Also a huge scout groups belongs to the parish (at present 80). This working with groups needs constant care: tasks, motivation, new impulses are imperative. Through the encounter with volunteers from different countries new aspects can enrich group life: interest in a different culture, history, language, mentality. On the other hand, the groups can be a place of learning for any young person, and especially for volunteers. In our parish there is the catholic kindergarten “Maria Salesia” which has explicitly the aim to provide children lots of social tasks, values and skills in order to develop a strong and healthy personality and so helping them to prevent them from a further childhood contamined with drugs and violence. Apart from this structured youth work our organisation is an important link in a system of open youth work in our area. There will always be young people who cannot be integrated into a stable group. Nevertheless, a young person needs acceptance, borders and love. In a period in which the authority of parents and school is accepted only with difficulty this group is a place of learning and experience for the young. It is our aim to become contact and confidant for young people through open activities. In this way leisure activities can be realized (skating, football, outings…) as well as topics can be discussed (drugs, different cultures…) and practical help can be provided. Additionally our organisation takes part in the struggle against poverty and social exclusion, in the struggle for integration and cooperation of different cultures with a project LeO together with the Caritas of Vienna, where poor people can come once a week and buy food for the symbolic prize of 3,5 Euro and they also can get social expert advice. This is also an useful learning field for our volunteers for several reasons. Recently we are more and more engaged in intergenerative work and in building bridges between several groups of the local community. An further extra benefit of our organisation is, that Director Dean Fr. Martin Rupprecht has been on the same time director of the Centre for Christian-Islamic Encounter of the Archdiocese of Vienna for several years. So there is the possibility for volunteers to gain experiences in the intercultural and interreligious dialog. So there are several fields, were solidarity is aquired and where it can grow.