Guiding principle

When the Bohnenkamp Foundation, through its support of educational processes, has chosen for itself the motto "Promoting education - taking everyone along." then this means first of all to enable equal opportunities, to support the education and upbringing of young people and to start as early as possible. That is why it is necessary to think in terms of educational biographies. Education is the prerequisite for social integration and professional success and, not least, fundamental to personal development. Access to educational processes must therefore be open to all children and young people. No one should be left behind on the path to education and through educational institutions. This benefits both the individual and society.

The foundation's work focuses in particular on all those target groups who are not able to fully exploit their potential, e.g. because they do not receive enough early support due to their background (children from educationally disadvantaged or socially weak homes), have a special need for support (e.g. at-risk youth), or whose problems are not recognized in the regular education system (e.g. highly gifted children whose abilities are often misjudged or children with a migration background who do not have sufficient knowledge of German). The Bohnenkamp Foundation thus focuses on special support for those who, for various reasons, are considered "disadvantaged" in the conventional education system.

The focus is deliberately on resources. In other words, the focus is less on deficits and more on the talents and potential that are inherent in every person. The resource-oriented approach has added an important aspect of "health" to the education debate. According to this approach, the perspective of educational projects should also be directed to protective factors that make children strong (e.g., physical activities). The characteristic of resource orientation always focuses on the entire personality, not on individual, isolated areas that need to be promoted. It addresses the "whole" person.

"Bringing everyone along" and supporting them in their educational biography means moderating and facilitating educational transitions such as from family to daycare center, from daycare center to school, from school to vocational training, and thinking and acting in networks. The participation of children in educational processes is to be supported as early as possible, e.g. the competence-promoting and partly compensatory attendance of the daycare center, the participation in musical and sporting activities as early as possible, etc.

"It takes a whole village to educate a child". This African wisdom also applies in our cultural circles. Mostly, however, the general conditions today are not geared to this. This is where the Bohnenkamp Foundation wants to set special accents by supporting projects that bring together as many people, experts and institutions involved in the educational process of children and young people as possible.