Kofoeds School - History

History

Kofoeds School was founded by pastor Hans Christian Kofoed (1898-1952) in 1928, at a time of economic depression. His goal was to help young unemployed men to come back to society as active citizens. H.C. Kofoed, made the slogan “hjælp til selvhjælp” (literally: “help to self-help”) the center of his work. He wished to help the unemployed differently compared to usual charities that often placed the unemployed in a role of passive receivers of assistance.

Kofoeds himself had experienced unemployment then he was young, and he had remembered since then that if one is being helped in the wrong way, it is possible to cause more damage than benefit. Therefore he based his work on the principle that an unemployed person may receive food or his wages only after performing an activity. When he receives it this way, it is not humiliating but rather brings satisfaction and a sense of justice. At the time Kofoed’s methods were revolutionary.

Among the first activities of Kofoeds School were a washroom and a laundry, where people could wash and do their laundry for free. And the school opened a workshop where it was possible to repair old garments and shoes. When Kofoed found other collaborators, he opened courses in Danish, English, French, German, counting, humanities, gymnastics and singing. Students could use the services of a legal counselor and a physician.

In the following years, the number of women learning housework increased. There was a joinery shop, in which men could repair used furniture, and there was a garden in which they could grow vegetables for their needs for free. Kofoed bought a farm in 1940 where a school for adolescents was developed, in which young agricultural workers attended an intensive re-socializing course.

The number of students grew rapidly in the first decades after its start, and so did the size of the school and the activities offered. Soon Kofoeds School was a well-known institution throughout Denmark, and Hans Christian Kofoed himself became a renowned, public figure. Both the work of H.C. Kofoed and his school received a lot of goodwill and respect from all layers of society, and when Kofoed died following a car accident in 1952, the country was in shock. More than 2000 people attended his funeral.

Students with yet bigger and cumulative problems started to appear at the school in the 1950s. Often they were unemployed alcoholics, people with psycho-pathological problems and drug addicts. The number of students grew intensively in the 1960s leading to the broadening of the offer of the school by many other activities.

In the following decade, employers and directors of the school entered a conflict about the perception of the school’s mission. Certain practical and ideological changes followed, but in 1979 a return to the original principle of help to self-help recommenced.

At the present day, the school in Copenhagen offers assistance to those students who are in a temporarily difficult life situation as well as to those who are in a much deeper crisis. The basic pedagogical principles of activation are still accentuated in order to let students try to deal with the problems on their own.