Everywhere in Berlin there is a lack of leisure facilities for children and young people. However, the shortage is particularly serious in Buckow in the south of the Neukölln district: As reported, some young people have now even founded their own improvised youth club together with the cultural network.
As youth councilor Mirjam Blumenthal (SPD) recently announced at the request of the Greens, according to the provisions of the Child and Youth Welfare Act, 504 places for children and young people in leisure facilities would be provided purely arithmetically.
However, there are currently only 136: These include the Wilde Hütte girls’ sports center (42 places) and the educationally supervised Wildhueterweg playground (94 places). So there are 368 places missing – and there is no youth club in the true sense in Buckow. Both of these facilities are also located on the very eastern edge of the district, and there is hardly any geographical connection to the rest of Buckow.
According to Blumenthal, the situation should only improve slightly in the coming years. In 2022, for example, a former laundry room – also in the eastern part of Buckow – is to be converted into a meeting place for up to 25 children and young people.
The former youth club in the old village school in Alt-Buckow is expected to reopen in autumn 2023: The youth club was closed a few years ago because the house was in a state of disrepair. Renovation work is currently underway. With the opening, there would be an official offer for up to 125 children and young people in the central Buckow for the first time in years.
And another youth club is planned: A leisure facility is to open in 2024 on the Buckower fields on Gerlinger Straße, which will be operated by the state-owned city and state. There should then be 80 places offered.
Anyone who has done the math will find out: That will still not be enough, especially since the population – and thus the number of children and young people – is increasing rather than decreasing. In the long term, around 2031, the adventure playground on the gamekeeper’s path should get a replacement building and another 40 places.
The information already indicates that no further facilities are currently planned between 2024 and 2031. Blumenthal said that there is currently neither space nor money for further measures. And the Buckow children and young people must have had bad luck.
