Czinczoll Björn
Organization: Kinderzentren Kunterbunt
Year Founded: 1998
Country: Germany
Website: www.kinderzentren.de
Geographic Area of Impact: Germany.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit
Focus: Children and Youth.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Germany, 2006 Video The Innovation Kinderzentren Kunterbunt is a childcare initiative providing a new approach to meet the demand from parents for childcare facilities in Germany. In contrast to most of the state-run kindergartens, it is designed to meet the needs of working parents. Specifically, it provides a new service because the childcare centers have extraordinarily long operating hours (from 6 am to 8 pm), including weekends and school vacations, enabling mothers and fathers to combine family and career better than many public kindergartens. In contrast to traditional childcare facilities which are normally situated in residential zones, the centers are located close to big companies, hospitals and in industrial zones, significantly shortening travel time between home, kindergarten and the workplace. Kinderzentren Kunterbunt considers itself a service provider and partner for families, offering additional services like excursions and seminars about nutrition, health etc. These innovations give parents the invaluable flexibility to fulfill today’s job requirements, such as unpredictable overtime, with the confidence that their children are being well taken care of. Background The number of children born in Germany has consistently dropped over recent years. Particularly alarming is the fact that 40% of women with an academic degree remain childless. They often do not see a way to combine children and a career. Until the end of 2004, there was no legal obligation for the German government to provide kindergarten places for children younger than 3 years old. A new law, adopted in 2005, guaranteed the building of a nation-wide network of childcare facilities for children between 0 – 14 years until 2010. This law supposedly enables all parents to combine family and career more easily. However, according to current survey data, only 14% of the demand for day-care places is met. To date, the market is dominated by state-run and religious organizations, which usually offer limited opening hours. Surveys reveal that over 60% of parents using daycare programs wish to have more flexible hours. Strategy Kinderzentren Kunterbunt supplies modern childcare services which are strictly modeled on the parents’ needs. The long opening hours throughout the whole year combined with the centers’ locations close to the working places provide a unique service for parents. Furthermore, Kinderzentren Kunterbunt offers seminars on topics such as nutrition and excursions for the entire family. Currently, Kunterbunt runs twelve childcare centers in Southern Germany, providing holistic childcare services to over 800 children. In 2008, another fifteen centers were opened in several other cities across southern Germany. Kinderzentren Kunterbunt seeks to expand at the rate of one new center each month. Given that it typically takes two years to open a childcare facility, this is a very rapid expansion. Kinderzentren Kunterbunt is primarily a publicly funded institution receiving government support that is given to all state-approved facilities. However, it works closely together with hospitals and companies from the private sector, in order to make the organization more independent from public funding and to create childcare centers close to the parents’ working place. It chooses companies with a high share of female workers and at least 1000 employees. Apart from a better funding source, this ensures a long-term demand for the childcare services. The employer also benefits from this cooperation due to the ability to provide at work daycare for the employees’ children at low costs and the possibility to present an open and family-oriented image in public. The fees are in the same range as in state-run or religious kindergartens. They depend on the total amount of hours booked and the age of the child. The Entrepreneur Björn Czinczoll first encountered the problem of childcare in Germany whilst doing community service. As early as 1998 – at the age of 26 – together with a parents’ initiative he founded Kinderzentren Kunterbunt in order to open a service and profit-oriented childcare centre. Björn is convinced that entrepreneurship blends well with social endeavors, and that there is room for the business sensibility even in traditionally public sector projects areas. His studies in law at the University of Regensburg prepared him well for his career path to date.
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