We introduce ourselves

Our association has set itself the task of making it easier for refugees/asylum seekers to arrive in our region. We offer free advice on residence, procedural and immigration law, perspective advice, language training, social and personal problems, vocational training, job search and document recognition in the form of case management.

Depending on current needs, we also offer free, low-threshold German courses at various levels: literacy courses for learning to write, beginners' and advanced courses.

With our Refugees Helping Refugees initiative, refugees who have been in Germany for a long time can volunteer to help their compatriots, for example when visiting the doctor and authorities, or as an interpreter.

In addition, we organize a wide variety of integration events, such as asylum policy discussion evenings, neighborly evenings where refugees talk about their escape and their country and cook small regional dishes: Hello Neighbor - welcoming culture with a difference, sewing or cooking meetings as well as integration projects such as application assistance and LGBTIQ* meetings. You can see which events, courses or projects are currently taking place under the Integration Projects tab.

Our history

Emerging from the voluntary work of Dörte Frisch as an individual in the form of a free German course offering from 2011, the range of activities of the refugee aid and project Deutsch Lern e. V. expanded more and more. An organizational redesign and professionalization was necessary. The club was founded in April 2014.

Since February 2015, the association has maintained a specialist center for “social advice for refugees” in the concept of cooperation partners for refugee advice, which is independent of welfare associations, on all questions relating to reception, residence and asylum procedures.

The exact areas of responsibility and the opening times of the advice centers can be found under Advice.

Furthermore, various projects with refugees as volunteers and civil society actors take place at club level. These are currently the projects "Hello Neighbor - Welcome Culture with a Difference", "Refugees Helping Refugees", the cooperation project "Make New from Old" and the cooperation project "Internet Learning Café".

We are also particularly committed to a pioneering network to facilitate access to the labor market for refugees. There is a constant dialogue with the “Schlüsselregion” association. The cooperation on the day of action “A day for your city” is mentioned as an example, from which three employment relationships have already emerged. Initiation contacts with job-seeking refugees take place with various companies affiliated there and also with other potential employers. We support the refugees in preparing their application documents and advise companies on questions regarding employment permits.

Over the course of 2017, we expanded our advisory services and now also offer advisory hours in Langenfeld and Ratingen. For this purpose, our employee base has been expanded and we now have several competent consultants working for us.