The participants of the initiative are homeless people, they produce and distribute a street-newspaper for job and income; the first 20 copies are given for free as a start-capital. Publishing articles in the newspaper is another means of income and overall conscious-raising work for the needs and problems of homeless people. The infrastructure of the AUGUSTIN-office provides computers and allows learning EDA.

The concept of the initiative was worked out by 6 students in the course of their studies at the Academy of Social Work and in collaboration with two journalists. Preparation phase was 1 year, presenting the initiative to the managers and employees of all social institutions and to the target-group-members themselves. Some people of the target group wanted to publish their texts. In consequence the writers workshop developed.

Thanks to the financial contribution of an insurance company the first 6000 copies of AUGUSTIN could be produced. Social networking with the Academy of Social Work in Vienna and with other social institutions was very important for methodological support and the provision with location. It was difficult in the beginning to find people who were ready to out themselves as homeless by selling this paper in the streets.

At the start students joined the homeless people as vendors. No room was available except within social-work-establishments which were often refused by the vendors due to bad experiences. In 1996 a neutral office could be rented and after that, work and sales improved. The commitment of the two editors/journalists contributed largely to the success of the initiative.

The objective is to render a job opportunity and financial support to long-term unemployed and homeless people, to give them a sense of belonging and to enlarge their activities. Homeless people join AUGUSTIN in order to work (they go to work in the enterprise, as they call it) not for care. Counselling is offered only on demand.

AUGUSTIN is presumably the work-project with the lowest access barriers in Austria: everybody can get employment without restrictions concerning documents, experience and know how, age. Only few rules are set, choice of the location of sale and the working-hours is up to the vendors; the project-team interferes as little as possible. Main target is help for self-help. The rudimentary capacities of the target group-members are promoted and not undermined by over-protective care. At the same time there is the safety of support and care when needed.

Social and Indirect Effects
General social effects are given in public spaces: by the active presence and visibility of the socially excluded group of homeless people as vendors in public transport or in streets, the issue of homelessness has gained publicity. Consciousness-raising work is done concerning their grievances and needs, but also the offers and abilities. Homelessness gets a face, homeless people go public with their interests and needs by publishing articles and selling the paper in the streets, by communicating with the buyers. AUGUSTIN acted as a port of call for another newspaper-initiative concerning questions of development, association law and distribution.

Assessment-Innovation-transferability
Assessment has not yet taken place, but is discussed presently. A preparing evaluation (concerning risk-evaluation, themes and contents with regard to already existing weekly and monthly newspapers in Austria, finding ) has been done by the department of journalism by order of the association Sand and Time to find out niches for publishing. A similar evaluation and external assessment is planned for the future radio-project. AUGUSTIN is a low-threshold socio-cultural initiative with a minimum of rules and regulations in its organization and its contents. As a model-initiative it has been subject of many papers and some theses at the University of the Academy of Social Work.

Prospects
The initiative has grown considerably in the last 1,5 years. Plans for the coming year are: investments into the paper (more volume, new layout) and into a second medium: the AUGUSTIN-radio-programme for one hour twice a week. The organisational design of the newspaper will be adapted to this new medium: collaboration of professional radio-journalists and homeless people. Further co-operation with other associations in the cultural field will be strengthened (lectures, music events and exhibitions have already taken place). Public re lations and presence in public space shall be intensified since this field has so far been neglected. Presently one organisational problem is to be solved: increasing the staff or integrating homeless people more into the organisation of the initiative. The further development of AUGUSTIN shall be clarified in a closed meeting this summer, especially concerning the activities in two media.

AUGUSTIN, Erste Österreichische Boulevardzeitung
Mr. Thomas Maier (social worker, public relations and sale), tel. +43 1 54 55 133

01/09/1995

case

Urban Policy

Social inclusion & integration