Beyond the financial aid itself, the supported projects benefit from the contacts and experiences of the staff of the Alfred Herrhausen Fund. The focus lies on giving a “jump start”, to improve the career perspectives of young people in difficult situations.

The German Malteser organisation cares for 70 children and young people in therapeutic living communities in the greater Hamm area. Many of them live in a grey area between mental disorder and normalcy. Due to the development potential of their illnesses, it is not possible to diagnose them completely, making it difficult to find appropriate care measures. Placing them in existing structural programmes for the disabled often leaves them wanting more, while accommodation in regular quarters often asks too much of them.

"Denkma(h)l!", a restaurant (the name is a play on words in German involving "monument", "think about it" and "meal"), was founded in an effort to create suitable structures to meet these special demands. Eleven young people work here in the kitchen and as wait staff, between two and eight hours a day, depending on their individual capabilities and possibilities. They are attended not only by a cook and a restaurant manager, but also by an educationalist, who is the connecting agent between the living communities and the restaurant. A psychologist supports the project and helps the team cope with the different symptoms and disorders.

A restaurant kitchen, in particular, offers a large number of challenges with differing degrees of difficulty, but which are all equally important in ensuring smooth operation. As such, each task is suitable for the young people to earn recognition and praise, boosting their self-esteem – a rare experience in most of their lives so far. Employment at Denkma(h)l! gives the young people an entrance to a regular daily structure, job training, and career preparation – and could even result in a work qualification. The young people build their individual skills no matter what. They exercise their stamina and performance, at a pace which takes their particular situation into account and helps avoid failure (whether due to overtaxing or boredom).

The transition from school to an apprenticeship is a difficult one, especially for weaker students. All too often, they leave school and cannot get an apprenticeship, making future advancement nearly impossible. Accordingly, professional assistance during this critical transitory period is one of the starting points for urgently required policy changes in the area of vocational qualifications.

For this reason, the Deutsche Bank Foundation – together with the Deutsche BP Foundation and the Grohe Foundation – supports the "Career Preparation Houses" (Häuser der Berufsvorbereitung) initiative, which was conceived by the career training centre of the Siegen Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The aim of the programme is to improve transition management for more than 1,000 students of secondary modern schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. The most convincing element of this concept is the systematic networking of all companies and supporting organisations involved in the pre-professional and career qualifications on site. Following the successful start of the programme in Siegen, it was also established in the cities of Olpe, Solingen, Bonn and Hagen in 2008.

Young people who sign up for the program are provided with instruction in job skills, alongside their regular schooling, in compulsory courses twice each week for a year and for six full weeks during their school holidays. They can gain their first work experience at apprenticeship workshops and training facilities – for example, in metalworking, construction or the restaurant business – depending on their interests and personal skills. An "etiquette guide" for future apprentices is another part of the instruction.

Hanging on pays off! Local businesses promise to give an apprenticeship to every young person who successfully completes the course, which comprises 570 study hours. Combined with ongoing support of the participating modern secondary students, the programme aims to achieve a success rate of 90 percent.