DC BISKOPSGÅRDEN
www.biskopsgarden.goteborg.se
Increasing employment among residents of the district is still a strategic issue for the District Committee of Biskopsgården. Extensive measures are being taken to inform residents about opportunities for training and work. The first goal of the “Biskopsgården 100” project will be to create one hundred new jobs for residents of the district.
| BISKOPSGÅRDEN | ||
|---|---|---|
|
||
| The first figure is for the district and the second for Göteborg in total during 2002, unless otherwise stated. | ||
| No. of inhabitants | 25,772 | (474,877) |
| Percentage of children 0–15 | 18.7 | (17.3) |
| Percentage of pensioners over 65 | 15.3 | (14.7) |
| Average income, KSEK (over 16) 2000 | 134.8 | (174.6) |
| Percentage of job applicants 18–64 | 6.0 | (4.1) |
| Percentage of people with higher education (20–64) 2001 | 19.5 | (38.9) |
| Percentage of gainfully employed (20–64) 2000 | 57.1 | (69.5) |
| Percentage on social security benefits | 17.5 | (9.5) |
| Social security benefits paid, SEK per inhabitant* | 3,541 | (2,128) |
| * Excl. introduction remuneration. | ||
The district borders on more established residential districts to the east and extensive green areas to the west, backed by the industrial sites of Volvo. Biskopsgården has exciting contemporary architecture in the form of apartment blocks built in the fifties and sixties. The City-owned housing companies, Poseidon and Bostadsbolaget, own a high proportion of the apartments in the district, together with a number of private property owners, including New Sec. Rented apartments dominate the housing stock, but there are also several housing cooperatives and pockets of detached and terraced houses.
Biskopsgården is a multicultural district whose residents represent around 70 different nationalities and cultures. At the same time a large proportion of the people we possibly regard as immigrants are young people who were born in Sweden. The multicultural picture is not so apparent in all the quarters of the district. Norra Biskopsgården is one part of the district that justifies government allocation of what is known as metropolitan funding. The government’s Metropolitan Areas Initiative gives grants to a whole series of activities and projects, particularly in Norra Biskopsgården.
Many recent immigrants of adult age still have difficulty in finding work. This led to high social costs for the district during the nineties, but in the first years of the new millennium there has been a downward trend in social security spending and associated costs. Increased demand for childcare is another positive sign in this respect. Extensive initiatives are taken to provide training and employment for inhabitants of the district. One example is Biskopsgården 100, a broad collaboration between the district committee, Bostadsbolaget, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the Public Employment Service and others. The first stage in the current process is to provide one hundred new jobs for residents of Biskopsgården.
A process of social change is taking place in multicultural districts like Biskopsgården, where a growing number of new Swedish citizens are becoming integrated in their new homeland. Biskopsgården has contacts and joint projects for district development in cooperation with the districts of Rosengård in Malmö and Rinkeby in Stockholm, for example. Biskopsgården is also taking part in the EU Equal programme, “Cities in partnership”, together with other European cities. Integration has become an important task for all services in these districts. The City Council’s overall goals regarding active citizenship, early prevention initiatives, competition, resourcefulness, safety and peace of mind are important pri-orities for all services in Biskopsgården.
The district has around 1,600 employees who have daily contact with residents of all ages and backgrounds – from pre-school to care of the elderly. The District Committee of Biskopsgården has had well-managed and well-balanced finances for many years. The financial result for 2002 was negative however, and the costs and revenues of all services need to be adjusted accordingly in 2003. Considerable financial adjustments will be required in 2003 in order to meet increased demand and maintain and improve the quality of services. The district authority has approved detailed plans of action to reduce costs by SEK 30m. The goal is to avoid deficits in the major service areas of individual & family care, pre-schools and schools, care of the elderly and care of the disabled.
High costs have been noted in the areas of alternative accommodation, foster home placements and institutional care, housing for elderly and disabled people, and personal assistants. In these areas, quality can often be improved while also reducing costs.
In compulsory schooling it is a constant challenge to keep pupils in the district’s own schools. The cost for a pupil who chooses an independent school or a school in another district is considerably higher than if the pupil chooses a local school. Too many children are now choosing to go to other schools. School development with a focus on “life-long learning from age 1–16” is an important priority. Individual development plans, security and the urge to learn provide the foundation for the “internal work” of schools. Schools that can offer the education that pupils and parents want are a key priority for the district.
At year-end some children had been on the waiting list for places in pre-school for over four months. One reason for the longer waiting list is the introduction of the maximum charge. There is still a waiting list despite the addition of new pre-school places during the year. These are complemented by open pre-schools and language pre-schools, both of which have good availability. Measures being taken in pre-schools include developing new methods for working with Swedish as a second language. Schools and pre-schools have also been working on development plans to combine pre-school and school as a single unit for pupils.
In care of the elderly there has been a certain increase in contact with elderly people from other countries, for example Spanish-speaking countries. In the home help sector immigrant families often apply for home care allowances in order to look after an elderly family member at home. Care and assistance are often needed long before normal pension age and the average lifespan is shorter than for native Swedes.
Property owners in the district collaborate closely with the district administration and City Planning Office under the Live Well in Biskopsgården scheme, which has been in operation since the mid-nineties. This is a non-bureaucratic partnership that operates largely within the financial frameworks of the various parties. One of its main goals is that residents of Biskopsgården should feel proud of their district, be involved in development and want to continue living in the district. Live Well serves as a collective name for a whole series of targets and activities within the network formed by the district committee’s services, district associations and residents.
An important centre for work on the Metropolitan Areas Initiative is the Ideas Office, a drop-in centre on Friskväderstorget in Norra Biskopsgården. People can come here with all kinds of questions and get advice on self-help in Swedish society. Various representatives of educational institutions, the employment market, companies and authorities come to the Ideas Office to offer information and talk with residents. Access to public computers, information of various types and helpful staff and visitors are all features of the Ideas Office.
The Metropolitan Areas Initiative has funding of over SEK 46m spread over four years up to 2004, and therefore allows concrete projects to be set up following approval by the district committee. A wide range of worthwhile projects is funded by metropolitan grants, including the following: