Sandra was a difficult case. She was “not in the mood” and often skipped classes for days. Blue letters and reprimands rained down, and because none of that worked, she was expelled from school. 3 times. “I was considered unteachable and unmotivated,” says 42-year-old Sandra Schürmann about her school career. The fact that she simply found the lessons boring – “nobody was interested in that”.
The memory of how it feels to be written off by everyone has left a lasting impression on Sandra Schürmann. For the petite woman, going against ingrained patterns has become something of a life theme , “constantly changing the perspective”. So that everyone gets a chance.
In Witten near Dortmund she is in chargeSocial enterprise Projektfabrik , she founded it in 2005. With the JobAct theater concept, she helps young people on Hartz IV : under the direction of a theater teacher, 20 unemployed people stage a play and take care of everything from the costumes to the advertising.
They also work with application trainers to get internships and apprenticeships. “Young people, whom no one has ever believed capable of, suddenly realize that they can get something off the ground,” says Sandra Schürmann. And says that she too believed in herself when she had the idea for JobAct seven years ago. “I sold my car to have money for the first computers.”
Experiential education instead of a vocational school course
She has proven that she can fight things through. After Sandra Schürmann “got the curve”, she completed her vocational diploma at the age of 21, then her studies, and worked as a qualified social worker in job placement. “I wanted to use fresh approaches to promote the young people’s personal and social skills.”
With canoe tours and climbing excursions – experiential education instead of a vocational school course . That was met with skepticism. “I had to fight. My ideas were often dismissed by superiors as a waste of public money.” After the birth of her daughter, she knew that something had to change. “During my maternity leave, I sat in a school theater and saw the energy with which the children were involved. Then I knew: this is it!”
Sandra Schürmann wrote the concept for JobAct and offered it to social organizations “with hesitant response”. That changed when she won the “Award for Young People in Work” in early 2006. Today she and her 60-strong team can look back on more than 100 theater projects. And to great success: A good 65 percent of all participants find a permanent job or catch up on their qualifications, far more than in the measures of the employment agencies.
A year and a half ago, Sandra Schürmann received the Federal Cross of Merit for her commitment . “Awards are good for the cause,” she says. And she’s been thinking about it for a long time. The next project is pending: In autumn she wants to open a school for creativity and communication.
