There are many opportunities to get to know people from Hamburg. For example:

Mentoring programs

Would you like to have a mentor? Someone who has been living in Germany for a long time and can help you? Someone who you can go on trips around Hamburg with? Someone who can help you learn German, look for a flat or find a job?

There are many mentoring programs in Hamburg, such as:

  • Harburg: Human@Human, Harburger Schloßstraße 14, http://human.hamburg/ .
    How to find a mentor: Contact the project via email (human@human.hamburg) or phone (+49 40 68911931)
  • Hamburger mit Herz: Gemeindezentrum St. Markus, Heider Straße 1, https://www.hamburger-mit-herz.de/projekte/mentoring/
    How to find a mentor: Contact Claudia Westhaus (westhaus@hamburger-mit-herz.de , +49 151 64866809) either via email or WhatsApp. Afterwards there will be a meeting at their office or via video call to get to know you and then they will look for a mentor for you.
  • Flüchtlingshilfe Harvestehude, Heinrich-Barth-Straße 19, https://www.fluechtlingshilfe-harvestehude.de/
    How to find a mentor: Contact the project via phone, WhatsApp, Telegram or email (paten@fhh-portal.de, + 49 177 1989061). Tell them some details about yourself (for instance, how old you are, where you are from, why you are looking for a mentor, what level of German you speak or what your hobbies are). You should already be able to speak some German (around A2 level). After a mentor for you is found, you can make an appointment with the mentor to get to know each other.

Most of the time, you contact the project, afterwards they will look for a mentor for you and then you can meet the mentor to get to know each other.

Your mentor can help you with visits to authorities and with your education or simply spend time with you and, for example, cook together or go to a museum or a sports event.

Mentoring and special offers for Ukrainian refugees

You can find offers of help from private individuals in Hamburg via the following link: https://cant-stop.me/en/home/. In some cases, mentorships are offered. In other cases you will only occasional ly meet for joint leisure activities.

Goldbekhaus offers refugees several types of events free of charge (including an open sewing workshop, an intercultural choir, a belly dancing course for women and girls, open slackline training for teenagers and young adults), supports mentorships for refugees and offers arrival assistance for refugees from Ukraine.

For more information or to register for events, please contact the Goldbekhaus information office: Moorfurtweg 9, +49 40 278 702 0, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 3 – 8 pm, info@goldbekhaus.de.

You can find more information in German here: https://www.goldbekhaus.de

Offers for LGBTIQ* refugees

There are projects that offer support for LGBTIQ* refugees, such as:

Welcome Dinner: Hamburg’s residents invite you to a welcome dinner!

Many people living in Hamburg invite immigrants and refugees to a welcome dinner in their homes. This is a way for you to meet people from Hamburg, speak some German and enjoy a free meal with them.

How do I get invited to a Welcome Dinner?

  1. Register at the following website: https://welcome-dinner.de/guest/?lang=en
  2. The “Welcome Dinner” team will call you up and tell you who your host will be. You will be given your host’s phone number.
  3. You can then arrange a date with your host for your Welcome Dinner.

It is important to be able to speak a bit of German or a bit of English so that you can understand your hosts.

Internet: www.welcome-dinner.de

Support for refugees with disabilities

For refugees with disabilites, there are different self-help groups. There you can meet other people with disabilities:

  • Leben mit Behinderung in Hamburg, Südring 36, project We are family (mentoring for refugee families with a family member who has a disability), please make an appointment: wearefamily@lmbhh.de, https://www.lmbhh.de/angebote/projekte/we-are-family/
  • You can find more self-empowerment groups here: https://www.kiss-hh.de/

There also is a sports club that was founded by people with a mental disability and that wants to particularly include people with a mental disability or multiple disabilities:

Phoenix Sport e.V., info@phoenix-sport-hamburg.de, + 49 40 28052822, www.phoenix-sport-hamburg.de

Join a project or start one yourself!

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You want to join a project to support society and help other people together?

Here you can find many volunteer projects:

If there is no suitable project for a topic or an issue, you can also start your own project. Perhaps there is a problem that you solved in your life and you have an idea how you can help other people to also solve it. The proposal for We.Inform as a project for refugees was also made by a refugee who had collected information for himself as well as his family.

If you want to start a project, the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband in the Kompetenzzentrum Migration (Adenauerallee 10) might be able to help you:

  • General project advice and advice on funding: Tamara Al-Keilani, PARITÄTISCHES Kompetenzzentrum Migration, Adenauerallee 10, al-keilani@paritaet-hamburg.de, + 49 15751136472
  • Advice on founding a club (Verein): Claudia Klein, PARITÄTISCHES Kompetenzzentrum Migration, Adenauerallee 10, klein@paritaet-hamburg.de, +49 15730618718

Furthermore, the Bürgerstiftung Hamburg offers funding to financially support projects and can help you with the application: yuliya.grechukhina@buergerstiftung-hamburg.de (it would be good if you could tell them your phone number so they can contact you), + 49 40 848896960, https://www.buergerstiftung-hamburg.de/projektfoerderung/fonds_migrantisches_engagement.

Last Updated: 12/01/2022