Empowering young people, creating equal opportunities

Exchange education for housing e. V.

Tausche Bildung für Wohnen e.V. (TBfW) has been committed to equal opportunities in education, participation and social cohesion in structurally disadvantaged neighbourhoods for more than ten years - currently in the Ruhr area and in Hamburg. The multi-award-winning social enterprise was founded in 2012 by UW/H graduates Christine Bleks and Mustafa Tazeoglu. While Tazeoglu retired shortly after the founding phase, Christine Bleks is still the driving force behind the initiative today.

TBfW combines two social challenges with an innovative concept:

• Children with difficult access to education receive individualised learning support, stable relationships and new spaces for experience.
• Young adults - such as students or volunteers - live rent-free in shared flats and in return take on responsibility as educational mentors for children aged 6 to 14. In the so-called Tauschbars, protected learning and meeting places in the middle of the neighbourhood, they promote academic learning, emotional stability and social skills - reliably, individually and relationship-oriented.
  

The educational mentors are accompanied by "Die Spielzeit", a learning and development programme based on theatre pedagogy that strengthens pedagogical skills, self-reflection and a sense of social responsibility.

TBfW's range of activities goes beyond tandem work: new forms of togetherness are emerging in neighbourhood work - through everyday support for families, leisure activities and volunteer-based education and participation formats. The locally anchored Tauschbars revitalise the neighbourhood and enable participation.

TBfW has grown steadily since the first Tauschbar in Duisburg-Marxloh in 2014. Today, around 400 children a year at six locations benefit from stable relationships, new access to education and the feeling of being seen and empowered. At the same time, young adults experience self-efficacy and grow as personalities.