Family Center KulturKinderGarten Wuppertal

"Colorful children of color - that's us" - is the motto of the in-house anthem of the Kulturkindergarten in Wuppertal. Around 100 children from the age of 4 months of various nationalities attend the daycare center on Nordbahntrasse. Find out more about the Kulturkindergarten Wuppertal gGmbH family center in this article. We spoke to the head of the facility, Astrid Ippig, about its concept as a "home for all people".

What is special about your Kulturkindergarten and how does it differ from the "normal" daycare centers in Wuppertal?

The KulturKinderGarten is a place where children and families from a wide variety of cultures, biographies and social and personal backgrounds come together. This diversity is also reflected in the educational team. From the very beginning, there has been a wide range of cultural and artistic activities for the children, such as music, painting, theater and dance. The artists work hand in hand with the educational staff.

The focus of the educational work is on the attachment-oriented approach.This is particularly reflected in the increased staffing ratio, which enables more intensive and individualized support for the approximately 100 children at the facility. The open concept offers everyone in our five groups, big and small, a shared daily routine and therefore the opportunity to learn together and from each other.

From the very beginning, KulturKinderGarten has seen itself as part of its neighborhood and actively participates in the events and development of its district.

Why is it important for you to be in close contact with parents?

Parents are the most important thing for children and nothing can replace them. A good bond between the educators and the children is only possible with a good bond with the parents. Our diverse parenthood also brings with it different educational approaches, skills and models that enrich our existing ideas of education and family in a variety of ways. Respectful interaction with parents and their parental skills is our basis for a trusting collaboration that benefits the children above all.

What advice and support services do you offer families and other people in your neighborhood? What concerns do they come to you with?

The KulturKinderGarten has two sponsors: Alte Feuerwache Wuppertal gGmbH and proviel GmbH. The Alte Feuerwache has developed a prevention chain with midwives, family pediatric nurses, the "healthy children's house" and various groups, in which families and their children are accompanied and supported seamlessly from prenatal to young adulthood. The KulturKinderGarten is an active part of this and offers parents many services:

• Family midwives, for example, offer various courses.
• Young parents can get advice and meet up at the Café Kinderwagen.
• A trained musician sings lullabies from all over the world with parents and their babies or toddlers.
• Chickens, rabbits and sheep live in the Old Fire Station's kitchen garden next to the kindergarten and are looked after by residents of the neighborhood and their children.
• At the neighbourhood festival, the KulturKinderGarten organized a large flea market with live music and food from all over the world together with other people from the neighbourhood.
• The KulturKinderGarten is part of the "Early Childhood Cultural Education Network", which is committed to increasing cultural participation in the elementary sector.
• The KulturKinderGarten celebrates at least one themed festival from a different culture every year and is open to the public.
• The kindergarten directly involves the neighborhood in various projects, such as on the topic of children's rights or "My dream neighborhood", thanks to its direct location on the Nordbahntrasse.
• During the corona lockdown, the kindergarten started its own YouTube channel with songs, stories and films from the day-to-day life of the kindergarten and its teachers, both to keep in touch with the children at the kindergarten and for all other children in the city.

Family centers can't solve all problems: How do you help families if you can't provide a suitable offer yourself? How do you organize successful cooperation?

Our provider's prevention chain covers a wide range of services.We have installed a guidance system for our parents in the daycare center's piazza, which parents can use independently of the kindergarten team. However, we are always happy to act as a point of contact and refer parents to other institutions and agencies in the city. Through networking and working groups, the kindergarten creates partnerships and is in contact with other agencies.

How do you determine the respective needs of families in the district?

Information is provided by the city of Wuppertal. KulturKinderGarten is also represented in several working groups that deal with the needs and developments in the district. For questions that directly affect the parents of the Kulturkindergarten, the kindergarten conducts surveys.

Where do you currently see the biggest challenges for families?

Corona has certainly torn big holes, especially for families who have a harder time in everyday life than others. The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs' "Catching up after Corona" program is therefore a very good start, but should be defined more precisely and continued for a long time.

The lack of daycare places and the shortage of specialists in daycare centres and schools is also a major problem. Daycare centers have had far too irregular childcare hours since coronavirus and parents hardly dare to demand pedagogical quality anymore.

Parents were and are left too much alone with their worries and challenges. In the current situation, there is hardly any capacity for "extras", even among families who are considered "well-positioned". However, overburdening parents always comes at the direct expense of the children. We must understand that an investment in the youngest is always an investment in the future and is usually cheaper than support later in life.

What is the next goal you would like to achieve with the Kulturkindergarten?

We want to continue to be a source of ideas for other institutions with our work and facilities and talk to as many people as possible about "making things possible". We want to further expand our services and make them even more tailored.

The issues of child poverty and equal opportunities are very important to us, and we try to use our resources to cushion as much of this as possible in our immediate environment. Otherwise, we want to continue to work socially and politically to ensure that more attention is paid to families and children and to stand up for their interests, rights and ideas as advocates for children.