Assisted Youth Living Bonveni info english

Bonveni is an Esperanto word that means "Welcome".

In the assisted living “Bonveni”, young people between the ages of 16 to approx. 20 years, from very diverse origins and with different backgrounds, are living together. In our main apartment in the Berlin district of Lichterfelde-West with six single rooms and a second, smaller accommodation (three rooms) in Lichterfelde-Ost the youths create daily routines as well as an continuative perspective for their future.

As the project was funded in reaction to the fact that multitudinous people are abandoning their homelands / countries of origin in the light of war, poverty, persecution and insecure chances in life and are then seeking protection and shelter i. a. in Germany, to date the main clientele are unaccompanied minor refugees. Moreover within the families who are already living in our society for a longer time, there are children and adolescents that have major problems with / because of / as a consequence of their migration background.

They are in need of special support i. a. due to the following:

• loss of family, friends, and familiar environment, anxiety and loneliness

• insecurity regarding status of residency

• uncertainty about the success of the family reunification process

• experiences of foreignness and discrimination

• exposure to violence and war, traumatisation and trauma caused symptoms

• lack of language skills and /or knowledge of the culture and society in the new environment

• absence of clear future prospects (especially in cases of an uncertain status of residency)

The assistance is tailored to the individual needs of the clients, trans-culturally oriented and characterised by our endeavour to respond sensitively to differences. We collaborate closely with various institutions and organisations in the field of migration social work / social work with unaccompanied minor refugees.

• main assistance hours take place in the afternoons and leisure times between 1pm to 8 pm

• support in the clarification of the residential status

• use of health care (especially trauma caused symptoms, counselling / psychotherapy)

• creation of a future prospect, assistance in finding schooling or apprenticeships, accompanying for authority visits and other official matters, creation of an (attended) daily routine, group as a social learning space, group evenings and activities, annual group holiday

• collaboration with volunteers and placing of mentors, tutoring and other voluntary support

• close collaboration with the youth welfare service, legal guardians and educational institutions

• cooperation with nearby institutions in order to get acquainted with the social environment

Our intention is, first of all, to offer the youths, after having left their homeland and their families, a humane place to arrive and to live. Thereafter, the very individual goals are mainly dependant on the residential status backgrounds of the adolescents. In some cases the most important concern is to allow a reunification with the family. As long as the residential status or the question of a family reunification are outstanding or in cases of loss of all family members, they struggle to focus on a self-dependent, successful life in Germany (along with all the professional / economical, as well as personal and sociocultural integration aspects).

In cases of wards who were born here and whose situation is caused by their (possibly family) migration background, we are trying, if at all possible, to collaborate with the familys for the youths to achieve more successful coping strategies.

Generally all adolescents hold the legal claim to this assistance according to the Code of Social Law VIII (child and youth welfare). As Germany ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child this applies for all children and youths, with or without German nationality and wether born here or not. Unaccompanied (without adults entitled to custody) minors arriving in Germany are assigned a legal guardian who represents them in loco parentis. The assistance has to be claimed at the local youth welfare office. The social workers there are then deciding together with the adolescent and his or her parents (respectively legal guardian), if an accomodation with Bonveni is suitable and will be granted and which elements and aims exactly it should have. In cases of a successful family reunification we then are available to assist at least in the transitional phase, acoording to prior agreement with the youth welfare office, with the first joint steps in Germany once the family has arrived.