The general description

Capelle aan den IJssel is a new town in the South-West of the Netherlands, nearby Rotterdam, being part of the Stadsregio Rotterdam. It is a new town that grew rapidly in the last three decades and has now 65.500 habitants. In the years of rapid growth Capelle was mainly focused on building houses and reaching ambitious goals in the physical infrastructure of the town (architecture, houseplanning, city-planning). Now, in 2005, after 30 years of rapid growth, Capelle reached its limits. Quite literally our city is built up to its borders and when our last big new city block is finished within a few years there will be no more large developments. At the same time the older parts of our town - and this even includes the earliest buildings of our period of rapid growth - will need at least a great overhaul or will be subject to city-renewal to prevent them from becoming future problem areas.

What we learned during the last years is that maintaining a town is a costly affair and when the growth is over it will take some serious thought to make a good maintenance possible. At the same time demands from the public are rising. People expect their community to keep up the public spaces and they demand high standards. Those demands are partly channelled through special community-councils. Places where people meet and discuss the demands for their neighbourhood. Those councils have a large influence on our decision-making process for maintenance of the public spaces and they even have a small budget for priorities of their own choosing.

Building a physical environment, where people can live and work, is easy compared with creating a community which offers its members a well-structured and fulfilling social life. People that came to live in the new towns, by definition, lack the traditions that grow out of a mutual heritage. They don't share the same past or the same values. And furthermore Capelle aan den IJssel has a lot of inhabitants from different cultures, especially people from Aruba and The Antils, Roma-people, Suriname, the Moluccas, Turkey and Maroc. Besides working on the maintenance and renewal of our city, Capelle aan den IJssel puts a lot of effort to realize a climate where it is pleasant to live and work for all those people.

The social infrastructure of Capelle aan den IJssel consists of a couple of major professional organisations that offer a wide spread variety of social and cultural activities (e.g. the library, the theatre, youth work, music school). In the local areas most social and cultural organisations are run fully by volunteers. Another group of professional organisations provide psychological and physical cares, also supported by volunteers.
In the next couple of years the focus will be directed towards organisations working together to prevent an overlap in services and activities offered, and to optimize the effect of money spent.

In Capelle we distinguish several target groups. Each group has different characteristics, different  problems and therefore we have different approaches for each group. E.g. we have different policies for the people from The Dutch Antilles & Aruba than for Roma people. One of the key factors in policy making for these groups, is the cooperation of the target group themselves. In this way we develop new policies with them and not for them.

Support

Capelle aan den IJssel gives equal opportunities to all. However, some people urgently need extra support. Prevention is better than cure. This is at the core of the Support project. And that is why Support is something that everyone in Capelle aan den IJssel finds indispensable.

Support plugs the holes in normal service provision. Tailor-made services for ethnic youngsters have to ensure that they do not slip further down the social ladder. The approach taken by Support is based on a thorough analysis of the risks for various social groups and the risks in certain residential districts.

There are groups of professionals involved in around 20 projects and institutions across Capelle aan den IJssel who concentrate on guiding children from the Netherlands Antilles/Aruba, Suriname, the Moluccas, as well as Roma children, aged from 0 to 24, and their guardians. Nor are Dutch young people and groups from other ethnic backgrounds excluded. The management of Support is in the hands of the municipality.