employment assignments with social institutions

Since 2017, the Nature Network has been carrying out employment assignments supervised by specialist staff in cooperation with participants from social institutions. These include, for example, the social services of various municipalities as well as specialist organizations such as AOZ and ORS.

During the missions with Naturnetz, the participants have the opportunity to break out of their sometimes difficult everyday lives and carry out light to moderately difficult work in the great outdoors. So far, these missions have been a complete success for both parties. During peak times from May to September, Naturnetz creates additional resources for the timely completion of weeding work for invasive alien plants. The participants, on the other hand, have the opportunity, in addition to improving their income, to pursue an activity that is meaningful on the one hand and can also be a stepping stone to future jobs on the other.

This model has proven particularly successful in the pilot project "Together against neophytes" in the Reppisch Valley. From the beginning of the project, the municipality of Wettswil relied on the involvement of social welfare recipients living in their municipality. They were enthusiastic about the project from the very beginning. Those who have been involved in the control for four years have acquired a good knowledge of the different species and their control methods. It is quite possible that some follow-up jobs could arise from the program after the project has been completed.