Puurs is a community of 17.000 in a more rural environment between Antwerp and Brussels.
3725 people are 25 or younger. Less than 5% is underprivileged (= single parent families, other cultural background, poverty,…)
Puurs has 12 youth organisations, 3 youth clubs and 6 regional youth organisations. A little less than 2000 youngsters between 5 and 25 years are member of a specific youth organisation, which is over 50% of the youngsters.
The youth service Puurs supports these organisations thru information, logistics and finances. The youth service also supports the organisations in maintaining their infrastructures and keeping them safe. Thru the youth counsel these organisations and other youngsters get to have their say about the policies in Puurs.
The youth service of Puurs consists for the moment of youth support in general, support for education (mostly grants), childcare (preschool and before and after school), the house of the child and rentals/maintenance of the youth centre and childcare sites of the community.
(at this moment there are some exercises to organise the whole department of free time (youth, culture, sports,…) in a lateral way with some people working over the services for specific target groups (youth, seniors, people with disabilities)
As a member of the department of free time, the youth service focusses on the free time of children and youngsters. With the vision that every child of youngster should be able to get the most out of their free time… overcoming most obstacles that holds this back.
In vacations the youth centre is the center of all youth activities. Children can come to play there or parents can use this as the start- and endpoint of all other activities (such as sport or cultural activities) organised by Puurs. As a community we are proud of this realisation to give the children the opportunity to organise their own activities. It is an ongoing project which can always improve more…
We have worked hard these last years on 2 important projects:
Over demand for childcare before and after school and in holidays
- Regulations of the government and funding organisations stipulate a maximum amount of children one can entertain in childcare locations.
- Every year more and more children had a systematic need for childcare. This was not due to a rising amount of children. The growth was the result of social changes over the last years, resulting in a bigger percentage of children needing childcare.
- There was no surplus funding or infrastructure available. Expansions should be breakeven on a financial scale and should offer a long term solution. The solution should also be in line with regulations about childcare.
- RESULTS:
- Before and after school:
- Creating an additional system of short term childcare (about 15h30 till 17h) in every school, working side by side with the existing system of (long term) childcare (about 15h30 till 18h30).
- Vacations
- Working together with the services for sport and culture to create more spaces for children and specifically toddlers so we could offer some form of childcare for everyone. (before there were waiting lists up to 250% of the capacity)
- Before and after school:
Digitalisation of the whole department
- As the first department we chose to digitalise the whole process for all activities and (personal) information management.
- All registrations, bookings and payments go thru a web shop which allows parents to plan and cancel their free time activities for the whole family no matter when or where.
- Data and information about children and families is always up to date.
- No use of unnecessary paperwork. No printing of reservations or invoices.
- Reservations are accessible thru web links. Responsibles for childcare work with tablets that are linked to the reservations and know from minute to minute who has reserved their place before or after school. They can check children in and out whit a simple touch on the screen. This also gives them acces to relevant personal information of the children, like allergies.
Website:
http://www.puurs.be/jeugd
http://www.puurs.be/kinderen_jongeren
Movies/youtube:
Night of the youth organisations: https://www.facebook.com/jocwijland/videos/1109332695770167/
Worldrecord dabbing https://www.facebook.com/gemeentePuurs/videos/1081475815291927/
https://www.facebook.com/jocwijland/