"Who cares?" - Report from a series of events in Heidelberg

The following report was made available to us by Heid Flassak from Care Revolution Rhein-Neckar. Thank you very much!

The series of events took place at the Collegium Academicum (CA) Heidelberg, a community-based housing project for over 250 young people organised by a small group of residents. The event was organised by the Friends of the Collegium Academicum (CA) with financial support from the neighbourhood management in the Hasenleiser district.

Motivation and goal of the young organisers:
To discuss care work together with experts and on the basis of experiences and examples and to look at how care work can be organised differently or in a new way at a local level in the district.

The concept of caring cities

Barbara Fried from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung pointed out in her introduction that care work is the basis of every society - whether in everyday family life, in neighbourhoods, between generations or in global coexistence. It keeps our social coexistence and our economy running. Nevertheless, it is often made invisible in public discourse, caring for others often takes place under precarious conditions and is unequally distributed along gender, class and origin lines. However, in the face of growing social inequality, economic insecurity and climate change, it is becoming increasingly clear that a sustainable society must place care at the centre of social organisation.

A caring city places precisely this at the centre: a good life for all. It offers accessible care and health infrastructures, fair distribution of care work, collective forms of taking responsibility, fair urban planning and the use of resources and spaces for the common good. The exciting question is how the path to a caring city can succeed.

According to Barbara Fried and the results of the discussion, the following strategies are crucial:

Democratisation and socialisation of care work

- Turning away from market logic: instead of profit maximisation, the focus is on a "good life for all". Care work is no longer seen as a purely private family task, but as a social responsibility.

- Feminist urban planning: The city is designed in such a way that it takes equal account of the needs of carers and those being cared for. This includes the visualisation of structural inequalities and the promotion of gender equality in decision-making processes.

Neighbourhood infrastructure and short distances

- Multifunctional neighbourhoods: Planning focuses on the neighbourhood as a central area of activity in which local amenities, care facilities and social meeting places are within walking distance ("city of short distances").

- Accessible care centres: The establishment of district centres or "care centres" enables the coordination of professional care, voluntary work and family support in one place.

Promotion of "caring communities"

- Networking of stakeholders: Successful models combine municipal structures with civic engagement and community work.

- Participation: Those affected, such as family carers or people with disabilities, are directly involved in the design of the services.

Political anchoring and international role models

- Municipalism: Strengthening local self-administration and the municipalisation of services.

- Best practices: Cities such as Barcelona or Bogotá serve as role models. They have (had) already established integrated care systems and neighbourhood care networks.

In summary, the transformation to a caring city can only succeed through a realignment of priorities: recognising care as a fundamental right and consistently aligning urban infrastructure with the needs of residents.

Film "Care is more. New ways in the care sector"

In her film, filmmaker Anne Frisius gives a voice to various protagonists who make other perspectives visible and conceivable beyond the known state of emergency. The main focus is on putting people's needs back at the centre and highlighting innovative approaches to care, such as a self-managed dementia flat share in Cologne.

Voices in the film

Silvia Habekost, activist in a hospital strike in Berlin, in which a collective labour agreement was reached (this means that work overload must be compensated by days off): "A system like this doesn't work if you organise it according to greed rather than need."

Charlotte Hitzfelder from Netzwerk Care-Revolution / Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Leipzig, (a think tank and educational organisation): "Care must be placed at the centre of the economy and society. We cannot live on this planet without care."

Gisela Notz, social scientist and historian (Berlin): "And then you can also ask whether there should be private hospitals. Or more and more private retirement homes, where a lot of money is siphoned off."

Justyna Oblacewicz from the Fair Mobility advice centre (advice network for employees from Central and Eastern Europe on their labour rights in Germany): "We need more attention and appreciation for this work. And this is work, not voluntary work!"

Brigitte Bührlen from the Wir! Foundation for Carers (Munich): "We need networks so that we know about each other, so that we form a lobby, so that we can say what we need!"

Care for older people and people in need of care in Germany is alarmingly inadequate. Brigitte Bührlen from the WIR! Foundation: "84% of people in need of care are cared for at home. Why are we letting the experience of so many family carers go to waste? Why do WE as family carers have no say anywhere?"

In the discussion with Anne Frisius, it became clear once again that there is an urgent need for fundamentally new approaches for a dignified life with support or care needs instead of profit-orientated care companies.

LUA (League for Unpaid Labour)

Franzi Helms from the board of LUA e.V. used slides to show the current status of care work/care workers and introduced LUA.
LUA, also known as Germany's first "care union", was founded in 2025. Its aim is the political and social empowerment of people who perform unpaid care work.

Goals of the LUA

• Recognition and protection: The LUA calls for unpaid care work to be legally protected as a central social service and for the protection of family care work to be enshrined in the German Basic Law.

• Visibility: Making the enormous economic value of unpaid work (estimated at 1.2 trillion euros in Germany) politically visible.

• Equality: Combating structural disadvantages and discrimination against care workers.

The concept of the LUA differs from that of a traditional trade union, as it is organised as a non-profit association, but is based on trade union working methods:

• Networking & organisation: it acts as a platform for exchanging and pooling the interests of parents, family carers and other care workers.

• Representation of interests: Through campaigns, petitions and lobbying, it represents the interests of care workers vis-à-vis politicians.

• Support services: There are plans to set up a legal advice centre and specific networking formats such as the "CONNECT_CARE" meetings.

• Democratic participation: The organisation sees itself as a movement that is financed by membership fees and has announced new exchange dates for 2026.

Interested parties can become members via the official website of the League for Unpaid Labour (LUA) or take part in current campaigns.

A key outcome of the discussion was the agreement to strengthen networking between the various actors and organisers, to initiate joint actions and to support each other.

The Care Revolution Rhine-Neckar network very much welcomed this initiative and series of events and actively participated in the discussions. The organisers and some of the audience were delighted at the prospect of pursuing the topic further and taking action together with the Care Revolution RN network.