SoMa - Excursion week 2025

On Monday morning, 17 November, a total of 18 Social Management students from semesters 1 to 7 went on a week-long excursion to Leipzig. The students had already decided in favour of Leipzig by a large majority back in March at the beginning of the year.

Just a short tram ride from the station, we were welcomed by Mosaik Leipzig e.V., our first social enterprise.

As a competence centre for transcultural dialogue, the association works with people from refugee and migrant backgrounds who are under psychological stress. The aim of their work is to place them in the regular healthcare system. The employees reported on the hurdles of their work. The financial resources and capacity ensure that not all people with a migration and refugee background can receive the help they need.

After these exciting impressions, everyone rounded off the evening. Many sat in a bar and socialised while playing cards and watching football.

The BBW Leipzig group was on the programme on Tuesday. The BBW-Leipzig Group is a vocational training centre that promotes the education, employment and placement of people with special support needs. In the morning, we were welcomed by the youth and educational support department with delicious cakes.

The Youth vocational assistance consists of several modules that support young people in (re)integrating into school, training or work. One of these modules is the production school „Step by step“. In addition to cooking and baking, other things such as upcycling and creative design also find their place in the rooms. The premises alone have shown us that this is a place where young people can feel at ease and where they are seen and supported as individuals. The „School? Certainly different.“ is designed to help pupils return to school regularly. To this end, pedagogically designed units are combined with small-scale, individually tailored lessons. The students were able to learn more about the challenges, the vocational qualification and the BBW Leipzig Group in dialogue with the employees.

The structure of the BBW Leipzig Group provided the perfect basis for gaining an insight into another BBW Leipzig Group facility after a lunch break. The Inclusive Hotel Philippus introduced itself with a guided tour of the premises and the neighbouring church. The vicarage has been extensively renovated to create an accessible hotel with conference rooms. The students were impressed by how many details in the building ensure a barrier-free stay. For example, there is a tactile guidance system on the floor, Braille lettering on the signs and the rooms have bells that work with light as well as an acoustic signal, to name just a few special features. The church next to the hotel is also barrier-free and is often used for concerts due to its excellent acoustics, which have also seen the odd celebrity perform.

In the evening, the Stadtstromer city tour 2.0 took us through Leipzig's historic city centre. The tour covered everything from the industrial revolution to the peaceful revolution. They were joined by SoMa alumni who had found a new home in Leipzig after Nordhausen. Everyone ended the evening together with cosy conversations and an exchange about their studies and career prospects.

On Wednesday morning, the group of students travelled from Leipzig to Halle to spend a day in the Francke Foundation to spend the day. The foundations and their impressive campus of buildings have a unique history, which we were able to experience during a guided tour of the historic orphanage, which is now used as a museum. The founder, August Hermann Franke, had the orphanage built outside the city walls in the poor neighbourhood with the help of many donations. The orphanage served as a teaching building and the living quarters were directly adjacent to it. This idea of education for all people lives on in the Francke Foundations to this day. Even today, there are schools, a day care centre and facilities for families, children and young people on the site.

We were able to take our lunch break in the canteen on the grounds, as the buildings of the Francke Foundations house social facilities as well as some rooms of the University of Halle.

In the afternoon, we were able to finish off in the Crocoseum an open programme for children aged 6 to 12 that explores cultural education through play. The premises of the Krokoseum itself resemble a land of milk and honey for children with a wide range of opportunities to play, run around and get creative. The creative programme also reflects the history of the Francke Foundations, as the founder used prints to finance the education of orphans. Today, the children can try this out for themselves in a wide variety of ways. We all wanted to be children there again.

At the end of the excursion week, the students can look back together on three eventful days full of insights into social institutions. In addition to the practical impressions, what remains are the shared memories that connect the students beyond the excursion week.

Over the three days, several fields of social work were presented as examples, ranging from people with a migration background to young people, people with disabilities, families and finally children.
On behalf of the Student Council and the entire Social Management Student Council, we would like to thank you for your hospitality and willingness to engage in dialogue between students and representatives from professional practice.