Tandems between immigrants and locals in Dresden
Start with a Friend e.V.
- Migrants & Refugees
- Democracy & Human Rights
- Education & Language Support
- Equal Opportunities
- Mentoring, Sponsoring & Career Coaching
About the volunteering opportunity
Start with a Friend e.V. (SwaF) is a nonprofit organization with over 26 locations nationwide. More than 450 volunteers work together to promote unity, acceptance, and inclusion. Our vision is a society that embraces its diversity. To achieve this, we facilitate personal encounters between people from different backgrounds and with different life experiences, both with and without a history of immigration.
TANDEM
Putting the SwaF vision into practice begins with personal encounters—Tandems. In a Tandem, newcomers and locals come together. Their shared experiences are diverse: cooking together, learning languages, exploring the city, culture, and art, visiting government offices, or gathering at SwaF Tandem community events. NEWCOMERS are people with and without a history of migration or displacement who are new to Germany or to a new city within the country and are seeking support with participation, language, education, or orientation. LOCALS are committed individuals from various age groups and social and cultural backgrounds who promote interaction, exchange, and participation.
TANDEM
Putting the SwaF vision into practice begins with personal encounters—Tandems. In a Tandem, newcomers and locals come together. Their shared experiences are diverse: cooking together, learning languages, exploring the city, culture, and art, visiting government offices, or gathering at SwaF Tandem community events. NEWCOMERS are people with and without a history of migration or displacement who are new to Germany or to a new city within the country and are seeking support with participation, language, education, or orientation. LOCALS are committed individuals from various age groups and social and cultural backgrounds who promote interaction, exchange, and participation.
Your Tasks
Would you like to get to know new people and get involved in building a stronger community? Then you've come to the right place!
The idea is simple and, in our eyes, that's what makes it so beautiful: we meet people, get to know them personally and then place them in a tandem - based on shared interests, life circumstances and, last but not least, our gut feeling. Ideally, this results in a friendship.
Our tandem partnerships are as diverse as the people who join us. They decide for themselves what they experience together. This is what makes SwaF's commitment so flexible and uncomplicated. We are there to support our tandems: as a point of contact for questions and through our numerous events.
Simply register for a personal meeting and find out more about SwaF!
You can find more information on our homepage.
What's needed
For this volunteering opportunity, intermediate German skills are required.
Time required
Regularly
Approx. 2 hours per week.
We recommend meetings of around 2 hours per week. You decide when you want to meet and how much time you have.
Important notice
For more information: https://www.start-with-a-friend.de/
Location
Start with a Friend e.V.
Start with a Friend pairs immigrants and locals into tandems based on their interests and needs. Ideally, this leads to a friendship; in any case, it creates a social network that makes it easier for immigrants to get started in Germany. Start with a Friend supports and advises the pairs after they’ve been matched and organizes events to help the pairs connect with one another. It’s also important to us to create structures that allow people with busy professional and family lives to get involved. The schedule is therefore flexible, and training opportunities are available but optional. So far, Start with a Friend is active in 26 cities across Germany.