Making Prevention Work - Case Study Austria

As part of a larger project mapping preventive structures and policies for children, young people and families in 12 European countries, the Making Prevention Work study aims to provide a consistent base for developing preventive policies in Europe. It examines approaches across the EU that demonstrate success with local preventive work. The in-depth case study of Austria presented in this publication is one of three published in the context of the Making Prevention Work study.
The application of prevention strategies for children and young people in Austria offers an interesting case study because of the broad spectrum of child and youth welfare policies and programs that are provided in some cases exclusively and in others jointly by differing levels of public administration. The four cases presented here feature prevention strategies with entirely different approaches to fostering cross-sector cooperation:
• The Early Prevention (Frühe Hilfen) program, initiated by the federal government but implemented on a regional basis,
• Preventive measures designed for a large urban context (Vienna),
• The integrated approach pursued in the city of Graz,
• A recently initiated pilot project in the state of Styria targeting integrated prevention at the local government level
The case studies address the following questions regarding implementation: How do the institutions and actors involved with preventive policymaking identify problems, and which routines / processes are thus set in motion? What are the overlapping areas of responsibility among (local) actors mandated to implement preventive policies? To what extent do they cooperate with each other? Is cooperation incentivized? If so, how? How are local programs financed?

DOI 10.11586/2020023
Publication series: Materials about Prevention
With financial support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Social Fund.