Support local refugee work by Give Something Back To Berlin

Give Something Back To Berlin (GSBTB) is a award-winning project platform and hub fostering community integration, intercultural dialogue and participation among Berlin’s diverse migrant populations. Online and offline, we work as a connector, creator and catalyst for all sorts of grassroots-driven social impact work in the interface of culture, education, advocacy and empowerment. The project took off 2012 and was officially launched in 2013, and until now involved tens of thousands people all over Berlin. GSBTB creates tools for integration bringing “privileged” migrants, locals and more vulnerable groups such as refugees together. Through our extensive grassroots work we create meeting points between groups that normally wouldn’t come into contact with each other, building inclusive networks, countering anti-migrant discourse and helping make online slacktivism become real offline engagement. Our concrete “think global, act local” approach showcases everyone’s capacity to contribute regardless of passport, status, language or time spent in the country. 

 

Our platform works on three levels; we acts as a connector, creator and catalyst. Through our partnerships with 60 local NGOs, our multicultural volunteers are involved with everything from working in homeless centers, mentorship programs for underprivileged youth, working with the elderly or creative work with children. As a creator GSBTB runs big projects; for instance, art and trauma therapy, music, language learning, cooking, female empowerment events and job coaching. Only through GSBTB’s own projects alone we are reaching 25 664 people, through 19 151 volunteer hours yearly. All this creates a vibrant community and professional network that itself is acting as a catalyst from where new things can grow. GSBTB has a holistic approach and our vast range of projects and tools is to reach different groups and goals. With some vulnerable groups (for instance women and children) it’s crucial to work on the ground in the refugee shelters to build up trust and empowerment while for other people it’s the other way around, and we not only create access to job markets but to the wider society as a whole.