Social Centre Upsala Berlin

The "Freizeitzentrum Upsala" is a big cultural and social centre for children aged 0-13 years and their families. It is an open institution, which addresses children, their families and their environment as well as senior citizens. “Upsala” is located in the south of the Berlin-Pankow district, where you can find many other social institutions in the neighbourhood including kindergartens, primary schools, a secondary school and a high school. Kids and students of these establishments are frequent Freizeitzentrum visitors. The surrounding residential area consists of renovated apartments in old buildings, as well as some new buildings and it is characterised by diversity, consisting of many families with children and older citizens. The program of “Upsala” covers a wide range of encounters, playing games and sports. Beside this, visitors can join workshops like doing crafts, being creative and enjoy musical education. The icing on the cake are the seasonal festivals and trips of the facility. For more details see: http://fz-upsala.de/ This workcamp is part of INVOLVE: It is a joint effort of 3 voluntary service organisations in Italy (Legambiente), France (Solidarités Jeunesses) and Germany (ICJA) that promotes and enhances the inclusion of migrants in 7 local communities. The project aims to contribute to creating more sustainable, cohesive and inclusive societies. Therefore, the main project activities are focused in the areas of environmental protection and social and cultural heritage. The objective is to demonstrate that performing voluntary activities together provides opportunities for social exchange, civic engagement and for learning and growing as a community and society. Involve Workcamps will also be held in five other project locations, three in Italy and two in France, in cooperation with the respective municipalities. Each workcamp will bring together a total of 20 participants with very different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. In Berlin, the international group will be composed of 5 old Berliners (long-term residents in Berlin), 5 new Berliners (newcomers to Berlin) and 10 participants from the project locations in France and Italy and also from other countries worldwide. The European cooperation project INVOLVE runs from January 2019 to June 2021 and is co-funded by the Asylum and Migration Fund (AMIF). For further information, please visit: http://www.involve.blog/