The Municipality of Düsseldorf asked our German member Diakonie Düsseldorf (Diaconia Dusseldorf) to address the needs of people living in the city centre, in order to make it a better place to live in. The work mainly focused on elderly people.
In a first step, the residents were asked by the University of Düsseldorf about their living conditions. 80% of them declared to be somehow tightly linked to their district and would like to remain there longer, but also some issues arose. The interviewed people complained about the lack of green areas, as well as the absence of meeting-places to spend spare time together in.
Taking the results into account, two local social workers started offering guided tour of the area, ‘’talk café’’ and ‘’cooking evenings’’ in order for residents to know each other and socialise. In addition, residents had the chance to share new ideas and proposals on how to improve community life on a workshop which took place on the 22th of October.
Find more about the project here (DE).