At our CJD centres, we help children and young people who fall by the wayside - due to poverty, unemployment or social developments becoming too much for families and causing marriages to break up.

 

The CJD's youth-work activities give parents and children the opportunity to shape a new future for themselves. We help parents in their efforts to bring up their children and deal with everyday life.

 

If living as a family doesn't work out despite this assistance, the CJD creates a new environment for the children, an environment in which they can become more settled and feel understood and secure. The aim is to strengthen their self-confidence, guide them in the right direction and give them a sense of optimism.

 

Up until recently, Malte was a bit of a layabout. He was increasingly playing truant and he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. His single mother was herself experiencing a time of crisis and hardly had any time for him. Three months ago, Malte moved to a "group home" at CJD Göddenstedt. The staff there show him that they respect him and have time for him but they also let him know when he oversteps the mark. He is gradually gaining self-confidence and developing new prospects for his future.