Committed Community

Civic involvement enhances quality of life, communal living, and democracy. Germany has an active civil society, with some 23 million people involved in work for the public good. To do so, they require structures, resources and contact points on a local level. These might be volunteer agencies, multigenerational centers, sociocultural centers, mothers’ centers, community foundations, senior citizens’ offices, self-help organizations, or communal field offices. In practice, however, such organizations tend to be underfunded, with a low profile and not linked to each other. Promoting these local contact points and centers of civic involvement is a key step on sustainable communities. Our networking program "Committed Community" aims to do just that. At present, it advises and supports 50 organizations all over Germany in small and mid-size cities: from Flensburg in the North to Titisee Neustadt in the Black Forest. All participants develop and implement concepts to strengthen civic involvement in their communities, and they do so by creating local networks and pushing visionary ideas. The solutions are different for each community, as are the challenges. At the same time, all participants share a common goal and they gain from sharing their experiences while pursuing this goal. Therefore, the program "Committed Community" supports their efforts not only with financial resources, but also via networking meetings, workshops, webinars and trainings.