Source: https://www.deutsche-wohnen.com/en/about-us/company/outreach/society-and-civic-engagement/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 12:09:23+00:00

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Around 300,000 people live in our residential units. We believe it is our duty to give help and support where it is needed. We promote a vibrant sense of togetherness and a lively neighbourhood spirit, concentrating on the neighbourhoods and cities where our properties are located.
Well-being in a residential neighbourhood isn’t just defined by the quality of the residential units and buildings, but above all by a functioning sense of togetherness and a good neighbourhood spirit. We concentrate on activities where our core expertise can have an effective impact. That’s why we support many local associations and initiatives with financial resources, commercial spaces and expertise. This helps them have a hands-on impact on their neighbourhoods.
For many years, Loyal e. V. has been one of the most renowned points of contact for children and young people in the southern blocks of Kottbusser Tor in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. The association primarily offers space for young people for whom our school and education system poses a particular challenge, or for those who are at risk of social exclusion. Relevant services are on offer for kids and young people in the neighbourhood. These include, for instance, the Mädchenladen, aimed at girls aged between eight and sixteen. We have supported the work of Loyal e. V. by providing financial resources and rent-free commercial space.
In Hanover – more specifically in Sahlkamp – we support NaDu-Kinderhaus’s project ‘Nützliches und Spielzeug reparieren und selber machen, leicht gemacht’ (repairing and making your own toys and useful things made easy). The aim is to teach children aged between six and twelve how to work with tools and materials such as wood, metal and plastic. Under supervision, but by themselves, children make useful objects such as nest boxes, kites or bows and arrows, or let their imagination take free rein as they design landscapes, machinery or buildings made from wood. We supported the work of NaDu-Kinderhaus, which was founded in 2002, with 10,000 euros and financing for a social worker’s project office.
In Berlin’s Spandau district, we use our DW fund to support local initiatives and associations in the neighbourhood with their projects for children and young people each year – and have done so since back in 2014. As one of the biggest letting companies in Spandau and Falkenhagener Feld, we would like to support ongoing neighbourhood development locally, particularly as many families live there.
The association KIDS & CO is involved in a variety of activities for young people in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. We support the association’s work as its innovative projects create positive incentives for togetherness in Deutsche Wohnen’s neighbourhoods. These have included extraordinary campaigns for strengthening communities such as the world record project to build the longest picnic table in the world on Hellersdorf’s Kastanienallee and setting up the parent and child cafe KastanienNest. The cafe offers young people with social issues the opportunity to help find career direction. With support from trained educators and professional training partners, young adults – particularly single mothers and fathers – gradually develop confidence in their professional skills. We support the association’s work with 5,000 euros each year.
Lesewelt, an association founded in 2000, has tasked itself with bringing children closer to the world of books and inspiring in them a love of reading. The association’s aim of bringing children with disadvantages when it comes to education to regular reading adventure events, assisted by voluntary helpers, properly paid off. Regularly reading aloud helps children with language acquisition, makes it easier for them to learn to read at school and thereby increases their chances of a successful education. Reading aloud also promotes patience, stamina and concentration. In 2017 we provided a total of 3,000 euros to support Lesewelt reading hours in seven Berlin libraries in selected Deutsche Wohnen neighbourhoods. In 2018 another 3,000 euros were provided for a campaign involving goody bags for those starting school.
The Wir zusammen alliance combines all of German business’s integration initiatives into one network. The participating companies also carry out independent integration projects and underpin these with binding sponsorship. As one of the biggest property companies in Europe, we were among the network’s founding members in 2015 and, as part of that commitment, we are still working to give refugees in Germany new prospects for their lives today. We have now rented out almost 900 residential units to refugees.
They are distributed via social agencies such as pad gGmbH and JaKuS e. V. in Berlin or the parish association in Lübeck, Germany. At our training premises in Mainz and Frankfurt, Germany, there is also a partnership between Deutsche Wohnen and the Friedrich-List-Berufsschule in Wiesbaden, Germany. As part of the project ‘Deutsche Wohnen-Azubis unterstützen Flüchtlinge’ (Deutsche Wohnen trainees supporting refugees), trainees in their first year at Deutsche Wohnen tutor pupils from refugee classes in German, Maths and English once a week.
More information about the "Wir zusammen alliance"
The Wohnführerschein is a proven qualification programme which gets young people ready to live in their own apartments and was created by the Berlin property companies allod, degewo and Marzahner Tor. Deutsche Wohnen helped the Berlin youth organisation JaKuS e. V. to adapt the Wohnführerschein for the needs of young refugees, and provided, among other things, 10,000 euros. Over a period of eight days, seminar participants discuss issues such as renters’ rights and responsibilities, living together in a house, maintenance and renovation of residential units, applying for a home and finance. As part of the seminar programme, interviews for residential units are carried out in premises and by trained Deutsche Wohnen personnel.
‘NeuRaum – Wohnen nach dem Frauenhaus’ helps women find their way back to independent living after a stay in a women’s refuge. Women who have lived in refuges for a long time in particular struggle to rent an apartment on their own and have to stay in emergency accommodation longer than necessary as a result. We are a key partner supporting the project from Caritas für das Erzbistum Berlin e. V. We provide 20 residential units to help women get a new start within their own four walls.
The association hestia e. V. was founded in 1989 and provides assistance for women who are threatened and abused physically and mentally. Deutsche Wohnen has been working with hestia e. V. for several years and provides urgently needed accommodation for women affected by violence. Further information about the cooperation you may find here.
On 1 October 2018, Neue Chance gGmbH and the Berliner Stadtmission association began the model project ‘Housing First Berlin’, supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs. The Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen e.V. carries out the project in cooperation with the Senate. Deutsche Wohnen is working together with both social organizations and will provide apartments in the course of the year 2019.The Housing First concept has already been used to combat homelessness to great effect in numerous cities around the world since the early 1990s. Now, up to 80 homeless people in Berlin will receive an apartment in a straightforward process as part of the Housing First project. Yet the rental contract is just the first step. Social workers, home economists and people with experience of homelessness will then be on hand to help.
Deutsche Wohnen is one of the first property companies that has provided apartments for the Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen e.V., which are rented to homeless women. For this, Deutsche Wohnen was honored with an award in March 2019.

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