I am John, 19 years old and have now completed a year of federal voluntary service with Kultur Aktiv.
After graduating from the Fachoberschule für Gestaltung, I decided to look for a BFD in the cultural or artistic field for the next year in order to try out more. I came across Kultur Aktiv, applied and was ultimately accepted.
The time here showed me how much work is actually behind such projects. The preparation, the planning, sometimes the search for people, the advertising both through posters, flyers and so on, as well as in the social media, and even after a project was still nothing completed.
Here I spent a lot of time at the computer. From Excel spreadsheets, to articles and posts on social media and Kultur Aktiv’s own website, to putting together flyers, posters and more in the graphics program Affinity. There was always a lot to do. But not everything took place on the PC. So I could be part of many projects and events. There were concerts, vernissages, booths at city festivals and much more. I was even able to take care of the annual project Winterreisen, the first thoughts, the contacting of participants, the public relations, the planning and the final events. This gave a lot of insight into how much work actually goes into something like this. For me personally, a small highlight was being part of a weekly Sewing-Café of Ukrainian women. I helped with the set-up and dismantling, but at the same time took part in the courses and thus spent one and a half hours every week sewing and exchanging ideas, which took place in German, English and sometimes also with hands and gestures.
All in all, I had a great year here, working on a wide variety of projects, facing a few difficulties of course, and ultimately learning a few new things.