Research visit in Germany

Monday, 28 April 2014 10:31 |

Research visit in Germany was made at the beginning of April. It was within the Project “Social inclusion of offenders by innovative models of social enterprises”, which has been implemented by Crime Prevention Fund – IGA. A ten-member delegation – representatives of Bulgarian institutions, non-governmental organizations, and municipalities – a target group of the project, had the opportunity to get introduced to the German experience in the development of innovative models of social enterprises for offenders. The German organization “Xit” GmbH, which is a partner of Fund – IGA in the project, was a host to the visit.

The delegation visited social enterprises, which hugely interested the participants. The enterprises were: Auticon (Berlin) – an agricultural organization and the first company in Germany, which has started employing people with autism as IT consultants; Mosaik Berlin – its target group is disabled people; they started with a small club, then with a shop, and later with a workshop; Die Weltkuche Berlin – a kitchen for emigrants, where women, who have been unemployed for a long time, or people, who do not have documents but have the right to stay, can work; Iqconsult – its main activity is to consult newly established social enterprises; Quartiermeister – a non-profit enterprise, a beer firm; Soul bottles – the idea behind this enterprise is in the protection of the ecological lifestyle, for which purpose it produces glass bottles for water with a different design; Hoffnungstaler Werkstatten Lobetal (Catholic organization), which maintains a wide range of social cares in the Province of Brandenburg with 2900 places altogether.

Apart from these social enterprises, which were visited on the spot, two more were presented by their representatives in the office of the host-organization. Presentations, lectures, and discussions were included in the programme. Not only the whole picture of social enterprises in Germany was presented but also specific elements such as financing, reporting, target groups, possibilities for development, and a comparative analysis with the Bulgarian system. The main subjects of the discussions were related to the legislation, the tasks and goals of the social enterprises and their management, the employment of disabled people, the problem zones in Bulgaria, and the possible ways for dealing with these problems. The participants shared their impressions from the varied programme and the perfect organization of the visit, thanked their hosts, and outlined some future parametres for cooperation with them.