OPEN SPACES FOR GIRLS – INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
Mobile girls picnics in Margareten, Vienna

Cosy, undisturbed hours in the park :: Back on Stage 5, Mobile Youth Work Vienna

The Mobile Youth Work group ‘Back on Stage 5’ began their girls’ picnic tour through the Margareten district in July 2004.
The origin of the idea lay in the desire of many Margaretner girls to spend “easy-going, undisturbed hours in the park“, and in the fact that young girls weren’t able or eager to linger in the parks.

The weekly collective visits to the park began to take in other parks suggested by the girls and, soon, frequently to various favourite picnic sites.
The meeting point in each case remains the restaurant of the Back on Stage 5 local, a “neutral place“, which also encourages individual girls to take part. Then some picnic shopping is done collectively and a suitable place is searched for in a park that the girls do not otherwise often frequent. A good picnic spot offers sufficient possibilities of retreat or anonymity, in order to be able to gather there undisturbed.

The open offer makes it possible for girls with the most varied interests to take part. They can play volleyball, paint tattoos, or take photographs, all according to what they want and need.
Particularly important to girls of different origins between the ages of ten to seventeen is the need to broach and discuss ever-changing topics such as family, school, violence, sexuality, and boys.