FEAD 2018 Catalogue of case studies

Germany – ‘ACASA in Dortmund’: Counselling vulnerable EU mobile citizens Diakonie Dortmund and Lünen Images © Iakov Filimonov, Shutterstock.com, 2018 WHY? There are significant economic and social costs involved for vulnerable EU citizens moving to other EU countries: they are at higher risk of poverty and can face difficulties in getting access to housing, healthcare, and other social services. Many of these EU mobile citizens are not familiar with local help structures and counselling centres. Language barriers, unfamiliarity and misinformation pose major obstacles to their integration. Yet, citizens from other EU countries are typically excluded from migration-related assistance as they potentially benefit from the EU free movement rules. Acknowledging this discrepancy, the partner organisation Diakonisches Werk Dortmund und Lünen gGmbH helps to fill the void through the project ‘ACASA in Dortmund’. WHAT? The ACASA team delivers targeted outreach work , counselling and referral services to disadvantaged newly arrived citizens from EU countries living in precarious situations in Dortmund. The multilingual staff provide orientation support in an array of areas, such as access to German language courses, health insurance, migration, and the right to housing. In addition to referring the target group to the relevant municipal support structures and institutions, the service also extends to accompanying the end recipients to their appointments. HOW? The project’s principal method involves staff members, who are native speakers of the relevant languages, reaching out to newly arrived mobile citizens within their daily environments . As such, in addition to street- based outreach, the staff speak to newly arrived citizens in their mother tongues in cafés, libraries and other public places. The institutions in which project employees offer assistance include the Citizens’ Services Building and the Public Health Office of the City of Dortmund. With the institutions’ permission, ACASA workers offer their support in the waiting areas of the two institutions during consultation hours. They wear nametags, and both clients and employees of the institutions can approach them at any time. The Public Health Office has also made a small consultation room available for the project. Diverse approaches to supporting Europe’s most deprived: FEAD case studies 2018 32