BENN Altglienicke

People with a flight or migration background
Senior citizens
Nature/green spaces

At the beginning of 2017, the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing began implementing the "BENN - Berlin Develops New Neighborhoods" programme in neighbourhoods with large refugee accommodations.

The first implementation phase with 20 areas ran until the end of 2021. The measures and campaigns carried out during this time are presented on the website https://rueckblick.benn-berlin.de.

Since the beginning of 2022, the program has now been continued in a total of 23 Berlin neighborhoods in the vicinity of large shared accommodation for refugees.

BENN is implemented by the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing in close cooperation with the districts. BENN teams in local offices are the point of contact in the respective neighborhoods and promote social cohesion and participation.

The aim of the BENN program is to strengthen social cohesion and promote integration in the neighbourhood. This should be promoted through activities and measures in the following fields of action:

Encounters and active togetherness

BENN finances measures and actions that facilitate encounters and dialog, create new forms of community and solidarity and strengthen the sense of togetherness.

The establishment, further development and/or supportive monitoring of voluntary work and civil society initiatives are among the tasks of the BENN teams. A particular aim is to enable people to get involved who were previously unable to do so due to their life situation.

Cooperation with the district volunteer agencies and other civic engagement structures is also established and strengthened.

Empowerment and participation

In the BENN programme, the ideas and needs of local people are surveyed and implemented and self-organized representation of interests is promoted. BENN creates the necessary framework conditions for this.

The BENN team organizes the participation of local people so that they can contribute to decisions that affect the neighbourhood. The participation of children and young people is also realized by the BENN teams. The ideas are implemented with the help of material resources, among other things.

Communication and dialog

Different lifestyles and perspectives come together in neighborhoods, which holds potential but can also cause conflicts. For this reason, intensive public relations work as well as exchange and dialog in the neighborhood are particularly important in the BENN program. Particular emphasis is placed on using many different communication channels in order to reach everyone, residents and stakeholders alike.

The task of the BENN teams also includes clarifying misinformation and prejudices. Awareness of racism and racial discrimination is raised and appropriate measures are taken to counter discrimination and racism.

Networking and neighborhood development

In order to achieve positive neighborhood development, changes in the neighborhood must be accompanied and acceptance for the increase in more complex diversity must be created. An important task of BENN is therefore to promote openness to diversity and to positively change the image of the neighborhood both internally and externally.

Meeting places in the neighborhood are particularly important for this. Creating these or adapting them to changing requirements is a focus of BENN's work. Public spaces are also part of the everyday world of the residents and therefore offer an ideal space for meeting and networking.

People who have now arrived here in Berlin and need a partner to help them learn German, get to know the neighborhood, help with homework, learn to ride a bike, feel welcome, implement their own ideas...