Mission statement and values

Principles

• We work in the social sector.
• We are independent.
• Freedom, equality, justice and solidarity are very important. Solidarity means sticking together and being able to rely on each other.
• We stand up against discrimination. Discrimination is when someone is treated worse than another person for any reason. Reasons for discrimination can be
  • the gender: i.e. man or woman
  • Origin: people are often discriminated against because they have a different skin color, for example
  • Religion
  • Homosexuality: Homosexuality is said when a woman loves a woman and when a man loves a man. You can also say lesbian (for women) or gay (for men).
  • Physical or mental impairment
  • the age

Goals and tasks

• There are people who need help and who are socially disadvantaged. We help these people to lead a better life. We achieve this through our special offers for these people.
• We want to highlight social problems and injustices and offer solutions to these problems.
• We talk openly about social disadvantage and want to encourage everyone else to stand up for more justice.

Services

• We tailor our services to what people need.
• When we provide services, we want people to feel that they are in good hands.
• We want to provide good quality services.
• We want everyone to be able to take advantage of our services. Even if they have little or no money at their disposal.

Employees

• We have full-time employees.
• We have employees who work on a voluntary basis.
• It is important to us that all employees are professionally and personally suitable for working at Volkshilfe.
• We want our employees to take responsibility and we want Volkshilfe’s goals to be important to them. We achieve this through
  • Co-determination
  • Education
  • Team work

Cooperation with the public sector

• Volkshilfe’s services complement those offered by the public sector. Public institutions such as federal states, municipalities or social welfare offices are part of the public sector. All together they are called the public sector.
• The work of Volkshilfe is important and deserves recognition. A sign of recognition is the right to have a say. Volkshilfe wants the right to have a say where decisions are made in the social sector.
• Volkshilfe is calling for financial security. Their services should be taken into account in public sector budgets.

Cooperation with other social institutions

• Volkshilfe is open to other organizations in the social sector and wants to avoid competitive thinking.
• Volkshilfe strives to cooperate with other organizations in the social sector that pursue similar goals in terms of content and social policy.
• Information and experiences can be exchanged.
• The range of services should be sensibly coordinated.