Off Road Kids Foundation

There should be no street kids and young homeless in Germany!
Off Road Kids Foundation helps immediately.
Countrywide Street Social Work.
Berlin . Cologne . Dortmund . Frankfurt . Hamburg. sofahopper.de

Street Kids in Germany

In Germany there are more than 40.000 street children, young homeless and especially young adults who are in danger to become homeless (Disconnected Youth). All of them flee from negligence, ill-treatment and abuse, and live by the way of getting small support from friends, begging, prostitution and petty theft. Some are so-called "sofa hoppers" living at their (internet-)freind’s homes. Those young people dream of a safe and secure place and don’t want to live at their friend's house or on the street forever. Quite often they are inconspicuous, young people - without apparent signs of distress. They come from all classes and walks of society and are not only found among bright-haired punks. They would like to go to school or to start a professional training. Sensitivity is often a distinguishing trait. Many of them are from rural backgrounds and hope to find happiness and luck by disappearing into the anonymous life of a big city.

Guiding principle:
Homelessness destroys the futures of young people

The street is an extremely dangerous environment – especially for young people in critical situations. They are at risk of loneliness, neglect, infection, addiction, abuse, prostitution and criminality. The danger increases with the length of time spent living on the street, and it is unjustifiable. Every day on the street diminishes the future prospects of these young people.

So, homelessness has to be prevented through professional counselling – on the street and as early as possible beforehand.

Objective:
Identify promising future prospects

In Germany, the Off Road Kids Foundation’s social workers work together with minors and young adults threatened by, or already suffering homelessness, to identify the best-possible future prospects for each individual, and realise these with the consent of the person concerned.

Unique selling proposition
Nationwide help: Online and directly on the ground

The Off Road Kids Foundation is the only nationally operating aid organisation for street children, young homeless people and sofa hoppers in Germany.
The digital platform “sofahopper.de” is the only nationally available, digital online counselling services for disconnected youth at risk of homelessness in Germany.
No other aid organisation operates its own network of street social work stations in large conurbations in Germany (Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Hamburg).
The Off Road Kids Foundation combines its nationwide digital-based social work with “analogue” counselling work delivered at the street social work sites: Young people living in these metropolitan areas can get counselling at the street social work stations.

SOFAHOPPER.DE
Countrywide Online-Support for young people in need

Just using a smartphone young people in need easily can contact the Off Road Kids street social workers through Off Road Kids Foundation's platform SOFAHOPPER.DE to chat and find solutions for the private problems - no matter where they actually are in Germany. This support especially has been arranged to establish contact to so-called “sofa hoppers” living in a way homeless at their (internet-)friend’s houses and not appearing in the street-scenes

Countrywide Street Social Work

The aim of Countrywide Street Social Work is to see that the “runaways” never become street kids at all. The Off Road Kids’ Street Social Work attaches great importance to inquiring about the individual's best possible and sustainable future prospects as quickly as possible. The distance to the home towns of these young people is not of primary importance because Off Road Kids operates all over Germany. Therefore young people can be accompanied, for example to their families, to the authorized youth welfare office or to a therapy center, at long distances if needed. This is the fundamental difference between Off Road Kids and all other available local help organizations. Off Road Kids runs street social work branches in Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund (the Ruhr area), Frankfurt (Main) and Hamburg, due to the fact that most young people, who have been trying to survive on the street for a while, often turn up in one of the larger cosmopolitan centers after a short time.

STREETWORK+

The preventative health programme, STREETWORK+, conducts health counselling sessions. Infectious diseases such as COVID-19 are a subject. But "Mental health" is the number one issue. All our social workers are trained in the area of infection prevention thanks to the continuing medical training courses long-established within Off Road Kids, and delivered by the ÄGGF (German association for medical training privided by doctors), alongside the health protection programme, STREETWORK+, developed in partnership with Bahn-BKK (health insurance fund).

STABILIZE & PREJOB

Off Road Kids Foundation has been adding follow-up programmes like STABILIZE and PREJOB to it's STREET SOCIAL WORK and SOFAHOPPER.DE services. The intention is to make sure young people will have a sustainable future. While STABILIZE makes sure the young people are living in stable conditions, PREJOB concentrates on school exams and job training.

Parents Hotline

Off Road Kids also advises parents whose children are threatening to run away (or have already done so), who are in contact with the street scene, or who have turned to prostitution. For this reason, Off Road Kids has set up a parent hotline. Well-experienced, qualified pedagogues are available to support parents.

Systemic Counseling and Therapy

Parents and Families having strong internal and private problems are welcome to the Systemic Counseling and Therapy “Family-Neustart” at Off Road Kids’. The Systemic Counseling also is open for kids and young people in outstanding difficult situations.

Countrywide Street Social Work: the Results

Our job is to investigate the best possible future prospects for every single street kid. The successful number of cases is encouragingly high: On our homepage you’ll find the total amount permanently updated.