Community for Tomorrow – A pilot project by IPSO and the District Office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

In cooperation with and financed by the District Office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

Our project ‘Community for Tomorrow’ starts in September 2024. It aims to empower the residents of the shelters in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg to interact with their communities in a trauma-sensitive and resilience-promoting way, thereby creating a space of mutual support, belonging, dignity and safety.

This is how we want to achieve this:

1. Multilingualism

Our focus on communication requires us to support residents in their native language. We therefore provide support with a focus on Farsi, Arabic, Ukrainian and Russian.

2. Individual counselling

All residents in the participating shelters in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg are invited to arrange individual psychosocial counselling sessions – online or at the IPSO Care Center in Berlin-Schöneberg. 3 – 5 counselling sessions are possible.

3. Workshops in psychosocial education

We encourage all participating residents to attend three of our workshops.  These teach basic skills in the areas of

• Stress management
• Resilience
• Resource activation
• Empathic and non-violent communication

The workshops aim to raise awareness of stress and trauma and how both can affect relationships and communities. Participants also learn how to use a language that promotes safety and belonging while preserving the dignity of the person they are talking to.

4. info sessions for social workers

The social workers in the shelters are an important part of the local community and know the needs of the residents very well. In the first weeks of September, we want to give them the opportunity to receive further training in trauma-sensitive and resilience-promoting work with communities of refugees and marginalised groups. This also gives us the opportunity to hear about their expertise and incorporate it into the project. We offer two online sessions in German for this purpose.

5. Training for community mentors

Community mentors form the centrepiece of our project. Community Mentors are motivated residents who want to train themselves in the areas of collective trauma, collective resilience and empathic communication and thus become a safe support for their community.

After successful training, Community Mentors are better able to recognise and address the impact of individual and collective trauma on community dynamics and relationships. Throughout the project, we also support the community mentors in setting up their own small projects to promote a lasting sense of safety, belonging and dignity in the community.

Outlook

We are looking forward to sharing the first results of the project in December 2024 and are excited to see the ideas that the residents will realise.

If you have any questions regarding the project, please contact