Not everyone at home is unemployed on paper. Sometimes a diploma does not appear in the system, sometimes the body is tired, sometimes confidence has run out. We believe social participation is not an endpoint but a road — and that road looks different for everyone.
What we do
- Support in taking a first step: volunteer work, a work-experience placement, a short course
- Personal growth pathways where we look together at talent, barriers and achievable goals
- Help navigating regulations, forms and institutions that can feel impenetrable
- A network of Rotterdam employers, neighbourhood initiatives and trainers willing to make space for people with an unusual CV
Who we work with
People who have been at home for a long time, young people without a starting qualification, status holders whose foreign work experience is not yet recognised here, informal carers who want to pick up their own life again, and anyone who wants to start over.
Our approach
We start with what someone does have, not with what is missing. Sometimes that is one conversation a week. Sometimes it is shadowing at a workplace before a formal programme begins. We work with the Municipality of Rotterdam, with social entrepreneurs in the city and with educators who are willing to think in tailored solutions. We do not push anyone into a programme that does not fit.
Examples
For illustration:
- A young woman who, after years of anxiety, began as a host at a neighbourhood breakfast and there found the confidence to return to her studies
- A man with an engineering degree from Syria who, through a work placement at a Rotterdam installation firm, returned to his field
- A group of parents who started a cooking project together and grew it into their own catering initiative
Get involved
Employers, trainers and neighbours with time or a network: you are needed. Sign up as a volunteer or partner or contribute to pathways that genuinely move people forward.
“People become visible again the moment someone sees them — and keeps looking.”
