Kinderhaus Luise Winnacker e.V.

About us

The Luise Winnacker Children's House, founded in 1995, is a multi-award-winning, non-profit,innovative educational project, an extracurricular learning place for life and social competence.
Underprivileged children and adolescents are given a variety of opportunities to recognize their potential and develop it. This is done in cooperation with the Wuppertal Förder- und Brennpunktschulen. Education students are involved and can engage in a hands-on, challenging and insightful "Teacher Training", to qualify for their profession parallel to their studies. Considering the responsibility that comes with the teaching profession, we give teacher selection and education a high priority.

The important concept of "acting instead of complaining" demands the readiness of all employees to assume responsibility in our society. One way to do this is e.g. the cooperation of the participants in work in the house and grounds.

We focus on two main concerns:
• The care and support of rejected children and adolescents. This can be so-called. behavioural, educational or even learning impaired children and adolescents as well as refugee children .In most cases they all have a hard life background in common, which they handle with admirable courage, ingenuity and strength. We want their voices to be heard.
• At the same time it is a declared concern of the Luise Winnacker Children's House to tap into the immense student potential which "slumbers" in the universities. This has to be done at the right time, and has to be job-related and at the same time socially relevant.

What we offer
• We have a house with large grounds, a barbecue area, a pond and workshop in a natural location on the edge of town. Woods, meadows, rocks and the river Wupper are nearby. This presents new experiences, especially for children and young people from urban areas.
• In the mornings, one class from each of our co-operation schools comes to us with their teachers and uses our facilities for special age-appropriate projects, which are considered as extra-curricular learning opportunities outside of regular school lessons.
• The afternoon offer takes the form of an "open door". Here, student teachers build their own groups and lead them to take responsibility. The student teachers try at this time to encourage the children and young people to lead a meaningful life and enjoy meaningful leisure activities. This includes nature experiences, games and handiwork or cooking.
• In addition, we offer help in school and extracurricular fields, as well as placement in jobs and internships.
• Further education for students: Seminars at the University, directed by Children's Home staff: "Work versus rights" and "Experiential education in practice".

Kerstin Spitzl is the managing director of the association " Luise Winnacker Children's House" and Lieselotte Winnacker-Spitzl has the educational leadership.

On request we can offer other net participants advice, give a presentation, and provide up-to-date information and contacts in the field of our work.