Many EU citizens from other Member States who arrive in Dortmund need extra support to successfully settle into their new home. This transition is not always easy: barriers such as language, functional illiteracy, a lack of local knowledge or extreme poverty make it difficult for new citizens to fit in and access the services they need. GIVE offers a helping hand to those trying to navigate their new environment by accompanying them to helpful institutions, authorities and advice services, especially parents and their children under the age of seven. 

‘Without the project I wouldn’t have known how to go on,’ says Karolin Schmidt. ‘Thanks to the help and support provided by the GIVE project, I now have a roof over my head.’ 

To become a permanent resident in Germany, citizens from other Member States need to prove that they have health insurance and enough funds to meet their daily needs. However, access to housing, daycare for children and other social support measures as well as communicating with locals can be daunting challenges. 

GIVE tackles each of these challenges to make the transition to their new life as smooth as possible. The project, co-financed by the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), has a team of native speakers who reach out to those in need and help them to find the services they need – including citizen services, daycare, schools and migration advice centres. 

GIVE provides information on a range of topics for freshly arrived EU-citizens: living in Dortmund, family matters, health insurance and healthcare, language courses and residence rights. It empowers people to find solutions to the problems they face themselves and teaches them to use the available resources effectively. 

GIVE’s native-language approach in nine languages (in English, Spanish, Catalan, Romanes, Italian, Bulgarian, Polish and Romanian, additionally to German) has been a huge success between 2019 and 2022, with 2785 participants successfully counselled and directed to social services. 2020 data show that despite the COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown challenges, it had a success rate of over 80 % in finding appropriate support for service users.