Camp Group

Within the framework of the International Parliamentary Scholarships (IPS) “Special Program for Arab States of the German Bundestag”, we held practical workshops on 6th and 25th September. The 25 participants from different countries of North Africa and the Middle East dealt with the topics: from the project idea, to fundraising, to the pitch, the achieved effect until you achieve the systemic change. We’re sharing our experiences about social impact orientation and measurement in our projects RespAct and Boxgirls with other people.

We would like to thank the IPS scholarship fellows for the dedicated participation in the workshop.

Lisa Opel & Caroline Assad
CamP Group gGmbH

Camp Group has been contributing to the EUSIC academy again this year, which took place from the 3^rd to the 5^th of August in Madrid at the Medialab-Prado, with workshops and coaching for the candidates of the competition.

This year’s competition focused on ideas which aim to make technological change and digital transformation more inclusive. We have been inspired by the initiatives which took part in the competition and are glad that we could contribute to their sustainable development with our workshops.

Prof. Dr. Heather Cameron, CEO at Camp Group gGmbH, presented a workshop on fundraising, and Daniel Meehan, consultancy lead, held a workshop on flexible & responsive project management.

“Empowering, eloquent and no nonsense: Cameron’s Fundraising workshop gives clear and personalized advice on how to approach fundraising. Cameron used examples which showed that she really identified the needs of the participants.” (L. Kolbe, CollAction)

“Thank you so much for the fundraising workshop at the European Social Innovation Academy yesterday, and for the very valuable additional advice afterwards.
Your session was by far the most insightful, concise and empowering. It left me feeling inspired to re-think our project’s fundraising strategy in a more entrepreneurial way and instilled me with the confidence needed to pursue more innovative fundraising avenues.” (Ioana, New Economics Foundation)

Furthermore, we had the chance to coach four of the participating teams:

Aj Ty v IT, Change Dylexia, Digital Skills to Age Well, and The Art of Sharing.

We worked through questions on impact measurement and orientation, project management, communication and fundraising, as well as organisational development.

The competition was a great experience to get to know a group of very promising social innovators, and to work again with Kennisland, Matter&Co and the European Commission, organisations intent on furthering social innovation in Europe.

Solidayan strives to achieve a publicly effective solidarity with the imprisoned students in Turkey.

Recently, they participated in a workshop on communication offered by Camp Group gGmbH. To provide greater public attention to the problem, we supported them in communicating their goals more strongly to the outside world. We find the work of Solidayan very important and wish them success in their work!

The Camp Group conference “Migration and public space: best practices from civil society organization” took place on the 1^st of June, bringing students of the Washington University St. Louis, civil society representatives, representatives of the local administration and national politics together to exchange best practices to increase the participation of migrants in the public sphere.

Prof Dr. Heather Cameron, founder and CEO of Camp Group gGmbH, invited all participants of the conference to actively engage in the discussion and exchange experiences. The aim was to find interdisciplinary and joined-up approaches to increasing participation of migrants in the public sphere. To achieve this goal best practices must be shared and transferred and synergies identified between an increasingly diverse spectrum of civil society organisations, administrative organs and political institutions.

Sharehouse Refugio and Transform e.V. hosted the conference and enriched discussion with their experiences in creating a lively, migration and integration-focused multi-use development in the heart of North Neukölln.

Participants took part in one of four working groups: exercise and sport; community building; environmental justice and sustainable neighborhoods; and transatlantic perspectives. Participants discussed social challenges and new forms of inclusive cohabitation in the public sphere, and developed next steps to facing these challenges together and sharing strategies and techniques that have worked well for specific organisations in the past. Transatlantic exchange about best practices was made possible by the representatives of the Washington University. The results of the workshops will be published by us in the coming weeks.

Dr. Gabriele Schlimper, CEO of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Berlin gave a stirring speech on the diversity of intercultural work and social work with migrants. She drew a clear connecting thread between the work of contemporary civil society organisations in Berlin and the settlement movement of Quakers and others in the same city destroyed by the second world war after 1945.

The conference enabled actors of diverse institutions and disciplines to exchange thoughts and ideas. We believe that only through this exchange is an integral approach possible, enabling increased participation of migrants. Furthermore, it is essential that the results of the exchange are publicly accessible. In this manner, Aaron Defort from Netzwerk Chancen rounded the conference off with a plea for civil society organisations and initiatives to work together to influence and stimulate public discourse.

We would like to thank all participants for their contributions and are looking forward to further exchange with each other to strengthen social impact and improve social participation for migrants and non-migrants in Berlin.

Currently Camp Group gGmbH is hosting a summer institute in cooperation with the renowned Washington University, St. Louis, in Berlin. Initiator and key organiser of the project is Prof. Dr. Heather Cameron.

In the two-week program 18 Students from the Washington University are participating. The summer institute is focusing on the  topic of asylum, the health care sector in Germany and developing interdisciplinary approaches to solve current problems. Thus, the aim is to gain knowledge on the health care sector with regard to refugees. The students, who study social work, can deepen their knowledge about practical approaches in this field.

Further, the program is making it possible to exchange with diverse decision-makers and enables discussions and new impulses.

The summer institute will end with a conference on “migration and the public space: Best practices of civil society organisations” this Thursday.

In the last week, the students met together with Prof. Dr. Heather Cameron representatives of different institutions and initiatives, e.g.:

Seitenwechsel e.V.

Bantabaa Food Dealer

State office for refugee affairs

Weitblick e.V.

Quartiersmanagement Zentrum Kreuzberg

Health authority Kreuzberg Friedrichshain

Further, you can find exemplary impressions the students gathered last week:

Quartiersmanagement Zentrum Kreuzberg

“We work to help neighborhood residents take responsibility for their community” explained Tabea, an urban planner working for Quartiersmanagment in Berlin Kreuzberg.  “We are a communications and networking platform for community initiatives and link to government”. Brown school students discussed how this approach reminded them of the work of Jason Purnell and For the Sake of All.  We also discussed how important “Teilhabe” or participation is to German urban development.

Kreuzberg Friedrichshain Health Autority

“Our job is to create equal life chances for all people who live in our district” says Sabine Schweele the head of the planning and coordination office of the Kreuzberg Friedrichshain Health Authority.  Together with Brown MPH and MSW grads and students she discussed how volunteers and professionals work together for health outcomes and quality of life in one of Berlin’s poorest districts.

Lunch at Bantabaa Fooddealer

Bantabaa accociation works for holistic support and integration of refugees and helps them to manage their own future. Bantabaa Fooddealer supports the Bantabaa association financially and employs participants of the project.