– Audio in German –
A few highlights from our conversation
Rosa Bergmann is the founder and CEO of the Hobby Lobby, an innovative “social franchise” that addresses one of the major, yet often overlooked, root causes of educational inequality: the lack of quality extracurricular education for underprivileged children. The reality is that many of the skills and attributes essential for thriving in adult life — such as social-emotional intelligence, friendships, motivation, dreams, and role models — are not acquired in the classroom. We develop these skills and assets primarily by pursuing our interests outside of school, in other words, through our hobbies. This is why Rosa and her team of 20 employees, along with an army of volunteers, offer free hobbies of all kinds — from rugby to French, and from piano to acting — to underprivileged and migrant children.
We spoke with Rosa about the mission and methods behind Hobby Lobby, how societal inclusion can be done right, and whether it would make sense to turn the Hobby Lobby into a business.
0. About Rosa
Rosa earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in social economy from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Right after graduating, she joined Teach for Austria, where she spent two years and quickly discovered her passion for addressing educational inequality.
1. Why we need a Hobby Lobby
Rosa states that around 70% of one’s knowledge is acquired through informal contexts and activities, which, during childhood, are typically funded solely by our families. This is where Hobby Lobby comes in. With 20 employees across 10 locations in Austria, the NGO partners with volunteers to offer free courses in a wide variety of activities. To date, they are employing 351 volunteers and 80 “youth leaders”(see below) in 11 locations and have offered over 630 courses covering 86 different hobbies, with nearly all of the courses being oversubscribed. In terms of output, the Hobby Lobby has provided 8.547 free spaces to over 4980 children from underprivileged households.
The overall aim of the enterprise is to teach social-emotional skills to children by engaging them through their hobbies. In line with this goal, Hobby Lobby launched a dedicated ‘Young Leaders Program’ a few years ago. This program, which has also been met with high demand, teaches leadership skills to children aged 13 to 14, addressing the gap in existing programs that typically start at an age when Hobby Lobby’s target group has already left school.
2. Inclusion done right
One of the key insights underlying the Hobby Lobby’s approach is that societal inclusion isn’t achieved simply by making existing programs free of charge. Children from different social classes won’t automatically mingle and learn from each other just because they are placed in the same room with the same teacher. Most projects that aim to include underprivileged children by merely offering free courses therefore fail to attract interest from the target group. If you want children from underprivileged and migrant backgrounds to move comfortably among those who have the confidence that comes from societal privileges, you must first ‘train them up.’ This involves helping them acquire the skills they lack and building their confidence in a group setting where they feel comfortable and are addressed directly.
3. Making sure it works
Rosa and her team want to ensure that their offerings have the intended impact, specifically in addressing educational inequality. To achieve this, it isn’t enough to simply measure the output; you must observe the children over an extended period and compare them to a control group. For Rosa, it is crucial to do this properly, which is why the Hobby Lobby is partnering with the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) in a long-term study that has recently demonstrated significant successes for the Hobby Lobby (see the related news feature mentioned above)
Check out a recent feature on the Hobby Lobby’s impact on the Austrian news channel ORF here.