Stadtteilmütter project to continue

The Berlin Stadtteilmütter (district mothers), who have been helping families with foreign roots to integrate for 20 years, can continue to work for the time being. Despite cuts in the state budget, funding for the project has been secured for this year, announced Family Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) after the Senate meeting.

According to her, 270 Stadtteilmütter are currently active in the districts. 49 of them are financed by the so-called Solidarity Basic Income (SGE), a support program for the long-term unemployed. The women in question will now be transferred to the state program for Stadtteilmütter, as Günther-Wünsch explained.

Diverse support in everyday life and with visits to authorities

The Stadtteilmütter themselves come from immigrant families who have been living in Germany for some time. They support other families with children in a variety of ways. They help them to settle in Berlin, deal with the authorities and attend nursery and school. They also provide information about help available in the districts, for example in family centers. So-called Stadtteilmütter's offices are spread throughout the districts.

Stadtteilmütter reach over 50,000 families every year reach over 50,000 families every year

According to Günther-Wünsch, the program, which cost 11.5 million euros this year, is running very successfully. "We reach more than 50,000 families in Berlin every year and offer them low-threshold support at eye level." The fact that the Stadtteilmütter also implement their own projects in the large accommodation facilities for refugees in Tegel and Tempelhof has proved successful.

Continued financing has "high priority"

Günther-Wünsch also wants to continue the program beyond 2025 - and expand it if possible. She assured that continued funding will have "high priority" in the negotiations on the 2026/2027 double budget. The goal of increasing the number of district mothers to 300, which has been formulated for some time, remains unchanged.