HERE IS WHERE WE MEET

HERE IS WHERE WE MEET

Community workshops – Weimar 2009 – collaboration with Weimar Ausländerbeirat – Bauhaus University Weimar – Masters Thesis MFA

Over a four-month period I worked with members of the Weimar Ausländerbeirat (a volunteer foreigners’ advocacy council, created under a city government mandate to represent the foreign population who do not have legal voting rights). Due to lack of funding/autonomy, and a diversity of experience, motivations, objectives and politics, the Ausländerbeirat struggled to find a collaborative energy. Through a series of interviews, group meetings and workshops I worked with them to set clear goals, mandate and structures for the organization that would support their strengths as a collective of community organizers. This project explored the vital role of engagement within an integration process, proposing community organizing as a rewarding experience for foreigners’ forming societal attachment.