They may not always be visible, but they have been playing an important role in our villages and neighborhoods for a century: the so -called community workers. Nowadays more often known as neighborhood or welfare workers. This year the construction work has been in existence for one hundred years and that is celebrated during the power test festival in Meppel.
The origin of the construction work goes back to 1925. Queen Wilhelmina visited Drenthe during a working visit and was shocked by poverty in the province. The peat industry had collapsed, unemployment and illness grabbed around it and alcohol problems made it even heavier.
To improve living conditions, a committee was set up in Drenthe. With the aim of making villages stronger together, through education, libraries, sports, neighborhood and village houses and especially cooperation.
“Actually, Drenthe was the pioneer of the construction work,” says Joop Hofman, chairman of strength test. “After the Second World War, the whole of the Netherlands looked at this Drenthe example, how villages can organize themselves and can move forward together.”
Although a lot has changed in a hundred years, the core remains the same: bringing people together. “Everyone can participate and everyone counts,” says community worker Werner Hoff. “Only some people have a harder voice, or more power. We are looking for the quiet voice, the soft voice, and how we can bring it up. That’s what we are about.”
According to Hoff, who has been working in the profession for thirty years, the work went with the times. “In the past, the church played a major role, that is now much less. Nowadays we look more at what residents find important. Together picking themes that they find important and come up with a solution for that.”
And after a hundred years, this profession can no longer be ignored from society. Hofman smiles: “It remains the best thing there is. That you always work with people who want to be meaningful for others. That sounds big and it is. If you can be busy with that every day, your eyes will shine.”