Partners

Many children and young people with refugee experience who now go to school in Germany sometimes miss years of schooling. Even if they attended school regularly before their arrival in Germany, they lose touch with English, mathematics or other science subjects during their time in the language learning classes/welcome classes. This means that the transition to the regular education class is bound to be overwhelming - not only for the students, but also for teachers and parents.

Back on Track e.V. offers the children and young people concerned the opportunity to catch up with the educational level of their age group at three locations in Berlin with regular learning meetings using the method of self-organised learning.

They are accompanied on a voluntary basis by Arabic-speaking teachers, many of whom are also refugees. They are trained by Back on Track e.V. in the method of self-organised learning and can take part in an 11-month further training course that introduces them to working in the German education system.
In order to have as holistic an effect as possible, Back on Track e.V. also focuses on the parents of the children and young people. In addition to regular exchanges in parent cafés, Back on Track e.V. also organises lectures and workshops on the topic of "School in Berlin".

Affirmative has been supporting Back on Track e.V. since July 2022.

Founded in October 2022, the Bundesverband soziales Mentoring e.V. sees itself as an umbrella organisation for all mentoring programmes in Germany. Its goals are to make the concept of mentoring visible, to strengthen quality and networking, and to generally improve the framework conditions. 21 founding members, who represent regional networks, nationwide structures and both small and large mentoring programmes, help shape the work of the Bundesverband soziales Mentoring. The Bundesverband soziales Mentoring is currently still in the process of being established.

Affirmative has been supporting the Bundesverband soziales Mentoring since May 2023.

The BürgerStiftung Erfurt thinks about the future and acts today. The name says it all: citizens donate money, time, talents, ideas - for the sustainable development of their city. They are multipliers of good ideas and at the same time motivate other people for social commitment. The goal is to promote existing ideas and help new ones develop. Because it is not the co-existence of many ideas and projects, but the cooperation of many initiatives oriented towards the common good that can advance the development of the city of Erfurt and actively involve citizens.
The projects of the BürgerStiftung Erfurt include the Fair & Sustainable Advent Market, the citizens' festival "City in Transition" / Sustainability Action Day, the Erfurt Donation Parliament and erna - the Erfurt Engagement Agency.

With the aim of introducing children and young people to social commitment and supporting children's aid projects together with them, Affirmative, in cooperation with the BürgerStiftung Erfurt and Children for a better world e.V., is launching a children's advisory council in Erfurt - the 10th in the whole of Germany.
Children and young people are involved in a participatory process in deciding on the funding of social projects and are thus introduced to social problems. The aim is to make them aware of the various emergency situations and to present solution models. The children should get to know as wide a range of organisations as possible and deal with different problems.

As part of this project, Affirmative has been sponsoring the BürgerStiftung Erfurt since July 2023.

BürgerStiftung Hamburg was founded in 1999 as a community foundation by Hamburg citizens for their city. It is based on the idea of civic engagement and aims to encourage participation in social tasks - through financial donations and volunteer work. Its work focuses on projects in the areas of education, social affairs, migration and the environment. Since 2016, the foundation has been implementing the project "Landungsbrücken - Patenschaften in Hamburg stärken" (Landing Bridges - Strengthening Sponsorships in Hamburg) in cooperation with Mentor.Ring Hamburg e.V.. Through counselling, qualification, networking and financial support, the Foundation aims to strengthen the commitment in Hamburg's sponsorship projects and contribute to good framework conditions with this project.
As part of the "Landungsbrücken" project, BürgerStiftung Hamburg, in cooperation with Stiftung Bürgermut, is developing a web-based data tool (codo) to support sponsorship and mentoring organisations in documenting and controlling all important steps and processes within the framework of a sponsorship and mentoring project.

Affirmative has been supporting the codo project of the BürgerStiftung Hamburg since June 2023.

Chancenwerk e.V. is a non-profit organization and provider of independent youth welfare services. Since 2004, they have been committed to ensuring that pupils - regardless of their parents' income or background - have a fair chance at education. Every week, they reach several thousand pupils at their approximately 80 partner schools in 8 federal states with their learning cascade and their diversified offerings. With their low-threshold learning support services, they help as many pupils as possible throughout Germany, with a focus on language and basic skills support as well as the development of individual skills. As a partner to schools, they are committed to fair educational opportunities, especially for pupils whose families are unable to provide them with sufficient learning support for financial, time and/or language reasons.

Affirmative has been supporting Chancenwerk e.V. from January 2024.

Since 2012, climb learning camps have been empowering young people to take confident educational and life paths, thus contributing to a courageous society in which challenges are tackled together and opportunities are given and utilised. During the climb learning camps, primary school children at risk of poverty and young adults (including many students studying to become teachers) spend two weeks during the school holidays learning from and with each other in the rooms of a primary school. In addition to making learning fun, climb learning camps promote precisely those future skills that each of us needs at school and at work, e.g. the ability to work in a team, consideration and perseverance.

Affirmative has been supporting climb since January 2025.

With its educational program HERAUSFORDERUNG - einfach machen!, Herausfo(e)rderer has been supporting secondary schools nationwide since 2019 in the execution and implementation of HERAUSFORDERUNG projects, reaching young people between the ages of 13-17. In an intensive process, they explore their values, strengths and areas for development. Based on this, they develop their individual CHALLENGE. The projects are as diverse as the participants themselves: Whether active in sports, immersing themselves in other realities of life or creating culture - the aim is always to break out of their own comfort zone, discover their own strengths and experience self-efficacy.
In order to reach more and more young people every year, the cooperating schools are empowered to carry out the project independently. They are supported by specific school development impulses.

Affirmative has been supporting the HERAUSFORDERUNG since January 2025.

Appreciation and equal opportunities for every child - this is the vision of the organisation In safe hands e.V., which was founded in 2015. Since 2020, the focus of the organisation has been on its sports education prevention programme BUNTER BALL.

The programme is aimed at teachers who teach sport in primary schools. They are empowered by In safe hands through training, materials and ongoing support to specifically promote the social and emotional competences of children in their curricular physical education lessons. The joint work on personal protective factors strengthens the children's resilience and thus supports children from psychosocially stressed families in particular to realise their individual life plans in a self-determined manner despite all risk factors.

The impact of BUNTER BALL is continuously evaluated through cooperation with the Psychological Institute of the German Sport University Cologne, the Chair of Educational Assistance and Social-Emotional Development Promotion of the University of Cologne and the Clinical Development Psychology of the University of Paderborn.

Affirmative has been supporting In safe hands e.V. since August 2023.

Kindersprachbrücke is a non-profit organisation that emerged from a student initiative in 2002. As a recognised provider of child and youth welfare services, they are active throughout Thuringia with around 140 full-time employees, 50 volunteers and 90 members. In our diverse society, they campaign for greater educational equality and more active participation for all people. To this end, they promote multilingualism, develop skills and empower multipliers. In addition to supporting children whose mother tongue is not German, Kindersprachbrücke is also responsible for the inclusion project " Sozialpädagogisches Teamteaching" (social education team teaching), school social work at three schools, runs a multilingual daycare centre and three in-house youth welfare facilities for children and young people and offers mobile support. Since 2014, they have also been a training provider in Thuringia for intercultural training and further education in daycare centres and a recognised partner in further education for German as a second language in schools.

Affirmative has been supporting Kindersprachbrücke since September 2023.

Kopfsachen is an organisation that promotes mental health skills among young people. Its vision: All people grow up in mentally healthy environments and become part of a resilient society. They are empowered to deal openly and competently with mental health. To get closer to this vision, they start in the school system and strive for a holistic system change; towards a health-promoting school system. In scientifically based educational formats, they teach pupils and school staff the basics of mental health skills and methods for actively promoting them. Their workshop leaders are comprehensively trained psychology students (at least B.Sc.) and psychologists. In the workshops, which are designed to be realistic and experience-orientated, the focus is on an encounter between participants and workshop leaders at eye level as well as a realistic transfer of applicable knowledge and skills. Since their foundation in 2020, they have had over 20,000 students at 3 locations.

Affirmative supports Kopfsachen e.V. from January 2025.

Lern-Fair e.V. is committed to creating and improving educational opportunities for pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged families and from migrant backgrounds. Through direct, unbureaucratic and digital support services, Lern-Fair gives children and young people access to high-quality education, regardless of their social background.

Lern-Fair's core offer includes 1:1 learning support, group courses and homework help in various school subjects. These offers are realised by volunteers who support the goals of Lern-Fair with passion and commitment. Lern-Fair pursues the goal of sustainably promoting educational equality and offering an attractive digital volunteering programme that is specifically tailored to the needs of young people. Its innovative approaches, such as the integration of gamification elements and the development of a user-friendly app, ensure that Lern-Fair's offerings always remain contemporary and appealing to the target group.

Lern-Fair demonstrates how digital innovations can be used to effectively support educationally disadvantaged children and young people and plays a key role in ensuring that all children and young people, regardless of their background, can develop the skills to meet life's challenges.

Affirmative has been supporting Lern-Fair e.V. since January 2024.

MORUS 14 is a non-profit organisation that has been committed to education, integration and violence prevention in the Rollberg district of Berlin Neukölln since 2003. With various programmes and offers, it is particularly committed to promoting the education and social skills of children and young people.

Among other things, children and young people are individually supported in the mentoring programme "MOMento". In doing so, MORUS 14 relies on the principle of "tolerance through diversity" and the civil engagement of many people who reflect precisely this diversity.

In the project "Schule-fertig-los", young people are accompanied in a subject-specific and goal-oriented way in preparing for the BBR and MSA examinations as well as the Abitur, and at the same time supported in career orientation.

In order to counter anti-Semitic resentment in the Rollberg district, MORUS 14's "Shalom Rollberg" programme focuses on everyday encounters and joint activities between Jews and predominantly Muslim children and young people in order to break down prejudices and create sustainable relationships across religions and cultures.

Affirmative has been supporting MORUS 14 since March 2023.

Only 40% of Hamburg students who leave school after the 10th grade have an apprenticeship. 60%, around 3,000 young people, leave school without any prospects. Young people who have a lower secondary school leaving certificate (ESA) or no qualifications at all are particularly affected. Both a dilemma and an opportunity: around 4,000 training places remain unfilled every year.
Since 2018, the MUT Academy has been helping these students make the transition from school to working life. A 1.5-year extracurricular support programme, consisting of various programme elements, gives young people the necessary orientation, provides missing resources and makes MUT: the aim is to promote the young people's self-confidence in this process and to make them strong for a secure future. The programme works: in the last six years, 75% of participants have made the transition into the world of work.
Over the next five years, the MUT Academy aims to have a systemic impact: the methods, content and practices of the MUT Academy's core programme that work are to be integrated into the school system through an accompanying programme for teachers in practical classes. The aim is to use the indirect, systemic effect to help increase the stagnating transition rate throughout Hamburg.

Affirmative has been supporting the MUT Academy since March 2024.

The mission of ROCK YOUR LIFE! is to support young people, regardless of their background, in discovering their talents and strengths, shaping their lives in a self-determined way and overcoming social barriers. Since 2008, the Munich-based social enterprise has been campaigning for more educational equality and fairer opportunities by providing mentoring support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in the 8th and 9th grades.

To this end, ROCK YOUR LIFE! trains students and young professionals to become volunteer mentors, who then support disadvantaged young people individually for at least a year in mastering school, everyday life and starting a career. The program is rounded off with inspiring training sessions, ongoing professional support and cooperation models with companies that provide internships or apprenticeships.

With more than 13,000 young people reached in 52 European cities, ROCK YOUR LIFE! is one of the most far-reaching support programs for disadvantaged young people. A comprehensive long-term study by the renowned ifo Institute has also scientifically proven that ROCK YOUR LIFE! mentoring makes a significant contribution to increasing young people's job market opportunities and maturity and developing their personal skills - in the long term and sustainably.

Affirmative has been supporting ROCK YOUR LIFE! in cooperation with Eleven since December 2023.

The SchlaU-Werkstatt für Migrationspädagogik is committed to more educational equity in the migration society and wants to expand access to education for newly immigrated youth and young adults.

They evolved from the Munich SchlaU-Schule, which has been providing educational opportunities for young refugees for over 20 years.
The SchlaU-Werkstatt accompanies educational institutions, municipalities and volunteers on their way to discrimination-critical, diversity-oriented and inclusive educational work.

With the aim of accompanying and supporting newly immigrated learners on their way to a just and self-determined future, they develop creative educational concepts, workshops and further training as well as language-promoting teaching materials that are both scientifically sound and field-tested.

Affirmative has been supporting the SchlaU Workshop for Migration Education since June 2022.

The Stiftung Bürgermut is a place for social innovation. It connects ideas, people and social challenges.

The aim is to specifically promote the exchange of experience and the networking of committed individuals and organisations. Because only when they know about each other, share their practical experiences and thus strengthen each other, do successful changes spread quickly and easily: Change needs methods.
To achieve this goal, the Stiftung Bürgermut has developed various programmes on specific topics (openTransfer, Digital Social Summit, D3 - so geht digital) and supports committed people and organisations in achieving more social impact with their social innovations.
As part of openTransfer Patenschaften, the Stiftung Bürgermut, in cooperation with the BürgerStiftung Hamburg, is developing a web-based data tool (codo) to support sponsorship and mentoring organisations in documenting and controlling all important steps and processes within the framework of a sponsorship and mentoring project.

Affirmative has been supporting the codo project of the Stiftung Bürgermut since April 2023.

MITsprache is a scientifically accompanied and evaluated language promotion programme of the Fairchance Foundation. Professionals in day care centers and primary schools are prepared in training and coaching for the multi-year language support of children and they are provided with tried and tested, practical and diagnosis-based support material.
The accompanying socio-pedagogical parental work also strengthens the parents of the participating children.
The MITsprache programme was independently evaluated by the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich between 2011 and 2015. The results show that supported children show a significantly higher increase in their language skills compared to children in a comparison group without additional support.
MITsprache is currently being successfully implemented at over 120 educational institutions nationwide.

Affirmative has been supporting the Fairchance Foundation since February 2022.

The award-winning organisation Tausche Bildung für Wohnen e.V. is aimed at committed young adults who get involved as educational mentors for children in structurally disadvantaged neighbourhoods in exchange for rent-free housing. This exchange creates a win-win-win situation for the children, mentors and the neighbourhoods.
For over nine years, Tausche Bildung für Wohnen e.V. has been providing children living in deprived neighbourhoods with a fair education, making it an important and long-term player in the educational landscape in NRW and Hamburg.

Affirmative has been supporting Tausche Bildung für Wohnen e.V. since January 2024.

When it comes to major problems and important issues, you need a team that thinks ambitiously, creatively and effectively. And wants to make a real difference. This is Viva Equality - a group of innovative people who have made it their mission not to look away, but to tackle solutions with empathy and understanding. The Viva Equality team tackles problems directly and brings about improvements. Among other things, with their BuT advice initiative.
In just under two years, a small idea has grown into a nationwide initiative that has made a lasting improvement to the lives of countless families, children and young people. Multilingual advisors help families through the jungle of BuT benefits, giving them access to services that would otherwise often remain unaffordable. More than 16,000 families have received advice on BuT. Over 500,000 people have learned about this benefit through BuT advice from advertising and the press and at events.

Affirmative has been supporting Viva Equality and its BuT advice work since June 2024.

The focus of goals connect e.V. is on intergenerational educational work for sustainable transformation. The initiators impart design competence with regard to these contents for children and young people as well as for adults and encourage sustainable participation, because: Design is attitude. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals form the thematic framework. The association sees education for sustainable development (ESD) for all generations as the basis and essential prerequisite for achieving these goals. In order to achieve these goals, the association offers thematic workshops and longer-term projects. These are characterized by a holistic approach and focus on ecological, political and social topics. In this respect, training formats are offered for schools, associations or companies. In addition, young people are trained to carry on educational work for sustainable development themselves in a multiplier function. Here, participants with a migration background experience self-efficacy and the assumption of responsibility and can actively participate in integration processes and language support for students in partner schools.

Affirmative has been supporting goals connect e.V. from January 2022 to December 2024. We would like to thank Goals Connect for the trustful cooperation and wish them all the best!

Acker e. V. is a non-profit social enterprise that was founded in 2014 and works at the interface of education, agriculture, environment and nutrition. In our society, people - young and old - have less and less contact with nature. And because spaces for experiencing nature such as natural open spaces, fallow land or gardens are disappearing more and more from our living environment and agricultural processes are becoming increasingly industrialised, many people, especially young people, often no longer understand where our food actually comes from. Acker finds: All children and young people are entitled to a natural place of learning where they can experience how food is produced. That is why the organisation develops innovative educational programmes and concepts to increase society's appreciation of nature and food, to anchor healthy eating habits and to counteract the progressive alienation from nature. The focus of the work is on year-round educational programmes for day-care centres and schools. In their own fields, children and pupils experience directly where the food on their plates comes from and how many resources are contained in fresh food. The programme for day-care children is called AckerRacker and pupils in (mostly) third to sixth grade take part in the GemüseAckerdemie. With other programmes such as Black Turtle or Ackerpause, Acker also takes the vision into private households and businesses.

Affirmative has been supporting Acker e.V. from March 2023 to December 2024. We would like to thank Acker e.V. for the trustful cooperation and wish them all the best!

The Education Innovation Lab is a non-profit organization in Germany that is committed to forward-looking education. The organization strives for a fundamental transformation of education systems. To this end, the Lab develops and designs new teaching concepts, learning formats and workshops on socially relevant topics that enable students and teachers to have new learning experiences.
The mission of the Education Innovation Lab is to empower learners to shape a sustainable future. For this reason, the EIL promotes innovative work in schools, establishes new learning settings and trains future skills.
The focus is on critically examining the central social challenges of our time. So far, the EIL has implemented learning formats on topics such as climate activism, digital literacy, mental health, digitalization and sustainability. The lab works co-creatively with students, educators and experts. It contributes to networking, makes knowledge tangible, makes experiences generally accessible and provides support, guidance and advice on all aspects of educational innovation.

Affirmative has been supporting the Education Innovation Lab from March 2024 to August 2024. We would like to thank the Education Innovation Lab for the trustful cooperation and wish them all the best!

Papilio develops and disseminates prevention programmes and modules with the aim of giving all children in daycare and primary school the same developmental opportunities, regardless of their origin and social background. Papilio encourages them to deal with their emotions, strengthens their social skills and helps them to develop their potential.

With this stable basis, the children are better protected later on from negative developments such as behavioural problems, psychological problems and even addiction and violence. In addition, the children's educational and health opportunities are significantly better.
As social-emotional strong personalities, they can lead a self-determined life. They enrich our society with empathy, stand up for justice and take responsibility.
Papilio does not go into the day-care centres and primary schools itself. Instead, they ensure that the prevention programmes and modules are introduced regionally and that children are supported in the long term by providing further training for certified trainers and educational specialists. All training activities are bundled in the Papilio Academy.

Affirmative has been supporting Papilio from March 2023 to Dezember 2023. We would like to thank Papilio for the trustful cooperation and wish them all the best!

Lilipad e.V.'s mission is to empower children and improve their lives by fostering a love of reading and a culture of learning. To achieve this, Lilipad builds partnerships with local institutions and organisations, providing them with books, educational materials and support tailored to the specific needs of these communities.

Since 2017, Lilipad has been working to eliminate and reduce inequalities and barriers to children's access to books and education. To this end, Lilipad has established seven libraries for underserved communities in Uganda, Morocco and Germany. To do this, they have worked closely with local partners to ensure that each library provides books, educational resources and learning opportunities. They have also organised educational events and workshops in these spaces to support the community and encourage reading and learning.

Affirmative has been supporting Lilipad e.V. from July 2022 to December 2023. We would like to thank Lilipad e.V. for the trustful cooperation and wish them all the best!