10 years of ProKids Foundation VS
The ProKids Foundation is celebrating its birthday: It is exactly ten years since the Schwenningen entrepreneur Joachim Spitz converted a successful initiative into a private foundation.

His goal at the beginning: He wanted to finance a hot school meal for children from poor families. The foundation is now in an excellent position and active in many areas; you can find our newly revised image film at www.prokidsstiftung.

"Our name says it all," says Joachim Spitz, founder and chairman of the foundation board. "ProKids means that we stand up for children and young people who have problems or are disadvantaged in all areas where it is necessary." The Schwenningen entrepreneur, owner of Spitzdruck GmbH, is committed to this with great personal commitment.
He is the face, the heart and the driving force behind ProKids. And as such, he is a successful networker who managed to win over CDU Bundestag member Thorsten Frei as patron.
In a symbolic launch event, Spitz cooked spaghetti for the children in Schwenningen's St. Elisabeth kindergarten and subsequently collected thousands of euros for poor children. The initiative was underway. From the very beginning, people were happy that their donations stayed in the city and supported ProKids. In order to be able to pursue his social commitment more sustainably and with more efficiency, Spitz decided to set up a foundation and made a big splash on this occasion - the foundation certificate was presented by the then Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Kristina Schröder, in person.
A central module of the foundation's work today is the ProKids meeting in the Schwenningen youth center "Spektrum", run by committed volunteers such as the Lichte couple and Bea Baumgarthuber. Poverty and unemployment are growing, and at the same time family networks are losing stability - this means that parents and single parents are happy to take advantage of the help offered here, for example the provision of children's clothing and toys, low-threshold advice and help in emergencies.

Erhard Bürks’ homework support service, sponsored by ProKids, also runs in the youth center.

The importance of both projects is demonstrated by the fact that both Bürk and the Lichte couple were awarded the Paul Harris Prize for social commitment by the Rotary Club Villingen-Schwenningen.

Consequently, this award has already gone to Joachim Spitz and Oliver Vlcek. The former national boxing coach had launched the "Fight for your life" project, which had been promoted by sports associations and the district, but was in danger of failing due to a funding gap.

The ProKids Foundation stepped in and included the exemplary social project in its portfolio, which Joachim Spitz had supplemented a few years ago with a shared apartment for teenage mothers in the "Neckarfair" residential park. Since then, underage mothers and their children who can no longer remain in a problematic home environment have found shelter here.
In the meantime, the foundation had launched a large mentoring project and, with the help of many committed volunteers, helped young people with problems on their way to working life. The foundation's latest project is also attractive to young people: a street workout park on the Vorderer See in Schwenningen, which was created with great effort and has been well received. For the city championship in street workout, which was held at the opening
The event was organized by none other than Lord Mayor Jürgen Roth, and the 2019 city champions both come from VS.
The foundation also gained a lot of respect for its baby hatch on Neckarstrasse. Joachim Spitz managed to get the hatch installed in the Franziskusheim, where it is constantly monitored. The businessman had read in the newspaper that a newborn had been abandoned and died in the wider region. Such a thing should not happen again. Since then, unknown mothers have left four babies in the hatch - Spitz is a lifesaver four times over. "That makes me particularly proud and happy," he admits.

Anyone who knows the foundation's head knows that he would not rest on his laurels for a moment. At the moment he is already under pressure for his foundation's big pre-Christmas project, the Christmas wish campaign. The gifts, financed from the proceeds of this project, went exclusively to children from
families in need. Corporate partners and private individuals take on gift sponsorships. The sponsors find Christmas wish cards on wish trees set up in local banks, buy the gifts and hand them in at the bank. ProKids then proceeds to hand out the presents. For Joachim Spitz, this is one of the best moments of the year - for him, shining children's eyes are the best reward.