Hertie Helps Volunteer Fair brings volunteering to campus

Community building goes far beyond campus. On 13 November, the Student Life team hosted the first Hertie Helps Volunteer Fair in collaboration with the Landesfreiwilligenagentur Berlin, a local agency that promotes volunteering opportunities in the city. This event gathered 18 local organisations from across Berlin, giving students the chance to explore a wide variety of opportunities and bringing the spirit of civic engagement directly to the Henrik Enderlein Forum.

The morning began with informal networking over coffee and snacks, creating a relaxed environment for students and organisation representatives to connect. This was followed by the main fair, where organisations shared information, leaflets and specific ways for students to get involved.

Participating organisations came from many sectors, including refugee support, food banks, elderly care, dementia support, homelessness, family and child services, education, and community-based arts initiatives. A full list of participating organisations can be found below.

Beyond making a meaningful contribution to the local community, volunteering provides numerous benefits to students, including fostering a sense of belonging in the city, strengthening social cohesion, supporting German language learning, and developing new skills. For international students in particular, volunteering is a powerful way to understand local contexts and connect with the city they now call home. We were delighted to see so many Hertie students eager to get involved in these impactful community initiatives. 

The event concluded with inspiring conversations about future collaborations between local organisations, student clubs and the Student Life team. With such a successful first edition, we hope that the Hertie Helps Volunteer Fair will become an annual tradition, further strengthening connections between Hertie students and Berlin’s wider community.

Organisations that attended the Hertie Helps Volunteer Fair

• Freunde alter Menschen e.V.
  Friends of Older People e.V. helps elderly people who suffer from loneliness and isolation to participate in social life again. With tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide, they are committed to combating loneliness and poverty among older adults.

• Betreuungsbörse – a project from the Alzheimer Gesellschaft Berlin e.V.
  The "Betreuungsbörse" involves volunteers visiting people with dementia in their homes to support leisure activities, promote engagement and give caregivers respite.

• Wellcome – Praktische Hilfe nach der Geburt
  wellcome is a community support service for all families seeking support during the first year after the birth of a baby. Volunteers usually visit families once or twice a week for a few weeks or months to provide support in everyday life. 

• RuT – Frauen Kultur & Wohnen
  Next year, the first inclusive lesbian housing project with a sociocultural centre, event hall and neighbourhood café will open. They are looking for volunteers to help in various areas, such as event planning, public relations and organising daily activities in the care-sharing apartment.

• SOLI Uganda e.V.
  SOLI Uganda e.V. supports local organisations in Uganda in the areas of education, agriculture and healthcare. They are looking for volunteers for project planning, public relations and organisational support. 

• Berliner Tafel e.V.
  The Berliner Tafel is Germany’s oldest food rescue organisation.
  They collect unsold food from supermarkets and bakeries, sort it and redistribute it to social programmes and food distribution points. They also offer children’s cooking classes.

• Lern-Fair e.V.
  Lern-Fair supports students and trainees who want additional help with their studies – free of charge and online via Zoom. Whether through one-on-one tutoring, group courses or language support, volunteers from all over Germany provide dedicated tutoring.

• Xenion e.V.
  XENION is a counselling centre that has been supporting refugees since 1986 by providing counselling, therapy and assistance in everyday life. For 20 years, they have successfully arranged and supervised volunteer mentorships for refugees.

• Hero Zukunft GmbH
  The Hero Group focusses on the accommodation and integration of refugees and asylum seekers. The purpose is to support refugees through housing in accommodations and assistance with residency and integration.

• Offene Tür Berlin
  Offene Tür is a non-profit language school, meeting place and, for some, a second home. The main focus is non-profit German courses to promote intercultural understanding.

• House of One
  The House of One is a unique interfaith project in the heart of Berlin. On the historic Petriplatz, Jews, Christians, and Muslims are building a shared house that brings together a synagogue, a church and a mosque under one roof – connected by a central hall for encounter and dialogue.

• Friedensdorf International
  Friedensdorf International is a German humanitarian organisation that has been bringing sick and injured children from humanitarian crisis areas to Germany for medical treatment for over 50 years.

• Deutsches Rotes Kreuz
  The Berlin Red Cross is committed to supporting people in every situation of life. They combine global humanitarian values with local responsibility including medical response and disaster relief to nursing care, counselling and integration programmes. 

• Fröbel
  Fröbel is a non-profit provider of nurseries, kindergartens, after-school care and family support services throughout Germany. Their centres are open to all children and their families, regardless of their social class, cultural background, specific support needs or gender. 

• Serve the City
  Serve the City partners with homeless shelters, refugee centres, orphanages, and other associations offering help and support. Serve the City creates events that mobilise many volunteers to serve in simple ways – sports, music, arts and crafts, meals, friendship and more.

• Rotaract Club
  The Rotaract Club Berlin International is a service club for young professionals and students. They organise social projects in Berlin, host inspiring speakers, and bring together people who want to make a positive impact while building friendships and growing personally.

• Querstadtein
  Querstadtein is a non-profit association that connects political education to urban spaces. On their tours, people who are usually rather talked ABOUT have their say: for example, people who have experienced homelessness or come to Berlin with refugee status. 

• Björn Schulz Stiftung
  For more than 25 years, volunteers from our outpatient children's hospice service have been giving their time to support families with sick children, according to their needs. The family is usually accompanied in their everyday life once a week for approximately three hours.