Report from the citizens' forum "Sorgende Kommune" in Halle

The concept of the caring city aims to transform urban (or rural) spaces through joint or complementary activities by local politicians and social movement activists in such a way that the care needs of all people can be met. It is therefore about changing society from the municipal level and directly improving living conditions at the same time. How exactly this can be achieved is the subject of debates and search movements. Viola Schubert reports on an event in Halle.

Initiated by the Municipal Policy Forum, a first event on this topic took place in Halle on 23 September 2023 at Neustädter Passage 13. In addition to 2 city councillors, representatives of various care organisations from the city and individual citizens took part - 20 people in total.

A caring city/community is a vision of a place that focusses on the well-being, life and needs of all citizens. Such a place is characterised by the fact that it provides a communal care infrastructure oriented towards the common good. All citizens can rely on this and have the same access - regardless of individual resources, biographies and circumstances. In addition, in a caring municipality, everyone has uncomplicated access to social services. There is already experience of implementing this concept in Naples, Zaragoza, Barcelona and Bremen (further information: https://sorgende-staedte.org/). Care work is seen as a lever for social change and as part of economic policy. This involves, for example, the possibility of free childcare regardless of employment, a reduction in working hours, the remunicipalisation of hospitals and projects to combat involuntary isolation ("caring neighbourhood"). There were approaches here in the coronavirus era, which unfortunately have not been continued in many places at the moment. The presentation of the "Shopping malls to care centres" project currently underway in Berlin was also interesting.)

After the presentation of this theoretical approach and existing results by representatives of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (which is currently bundling activities in Germany and presenting them on the above-mentioned homepage), City Councillor Ute Haupt reported on existing approaches and activities in Halle - such as the Seniors' Council, the "Wärmestube", the volunteer agency (in particular the "Klingelzeichen" senior citizens' visiting service), the community centre of the humanist association, the "Bürgerladen", the "Schlaustübchen", the "Pusteblume", the "Schöpfkelle", offers from the churches and the self-help contact point. As the subsequent workshop on the topic of "Education, participation and volunteering into old age" showed, there is sometimes a lack of knowledge of other specific services and corresponding networking.

Another important point was the digitalisation of municipal administrative services for citizens, which often cause difficulties for older people without computers; there is a widespread lack of corresponding support services. In particular, there is a lack of necessary funding for counselling and support services; some services are provided on a voluntary basis - sometimes at the expense of other activities. Similarly, documents and information are often not available in plain language. There is a specialist centre for this at the University of Halle, which should be contacted for support (through interns or requests to have certain documents translated as teaching material).

It is also difficult for many organisations that certain project funds have to be applied for each year. At least for activities that are part of the mandatory tasks of a municipality, such as debt counselling, it should be suggested that the duration be increased to 3 years. This would also reduce the burden on the municipal administration, as it would only have to review applications every three years.

Another suggestion was to have the city administration look into the interim use of the former Galeria department stores' for clubs and their programmes. The favourable transport location and thus good accessibility (a point repeatedly emphasised for activities in the sense of a "caring community") are an important point here.

In the second workshop, which was initially entitled "caring relatives", it was initially suggested that the term "caring relatives" be used, as care is often only associated with physical care, but the approach of the event and the objectives of the concept go far beyond this.

Furthermore, Ms Schumann, self-help contact point for care in Halle-Saalekreis, first explained the tasks that the contact point takes on (support for existing self-help groups and for setting up new ones; advice and organisation of events on the topic). She went on to provide information about people's needs on the subject of care.

Among other things, the discussion centred on how information on the topics could be better communicated to family carers. For example, the wish arose to organise a care action day in which various stakeholders such as Walk of Care, Medinetz[1], care services, hospitals, local politics, but also the organisations of migrant associations (VEMO Halle, LAMSA), drug counselling centres and others could be involved. This could be preceded by a networking structure to prepare a day of action. Various ways of providing information, e.g. campaigns, were also discussed. However, this would require appropriate materials, which unfortunately would not be sufficiently available or financed.

Another issue was how to successfully integrate families with a migration background into these networks. At present, carers are looked after by their families, but they hardly ever turn to the contact points. It was stated that they are not sufficiently aware of the existing services.

The following ideas were developed:

- Establishment of a "networking working group"

- Prepare campaigns that can provide information about care support etc.

- Organisation of a care fair

- Demand for full long-term care insurance (this has been discussed, but would need to be reworked in terms of content)

- Extend the volunteer card to the needs of carers

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[1] This is a network of medical students at the University of Halle who support migrants with medical care free of charge (accompanying them to doctor's appointments, translating documents, etc.).