For my project “4 Blocks,” I accompany children and young people in a poverty-stricken district of Gelsenkirchen. Gelsenkirchen is one of the poorest cities in Germany and has the highest child poverty rate. People from around 130 nations live here, and about one-fifth of the population has a migrant background. The old brick houses of the former mining settlements still stand here, but today they are mainly used as social housing – many of them are empty. Some families live in houses that are barely habitable. Some have neither electricity nor running water or heating in winter. Parents with eight children sometimes live in two rooms. In the center of Schalke-Nord, there are four apartment blocks next to each other, also known as “4 Blocks” by the residents. Some families came as guest workers in the 1950s and 1960s, while others have moved in only in recent years. The EU's eastward expansion and the migration movements since 2015 have significantly changed the population structure in Schalke-Nord. “4 Blocks” is also intended to be a contemporary historical document of this development. A wide variety of cultures live together here in a small space. The project aims to provide insight into the reality of life for the children and young people who grow up there – as well as into their different cultures and ways of living together. This project continues my exploration of childhood and growing up—themes that run like a thread through almost all of my work.