In Mönchengladbach, a subsidiary of the Diakonie welfare organisation is an alliance partner in the Publicly funded employment scheme.  Men and women who had been long out of work, have found new regular jobs in a modern laundry business.  They also receive special mentoring services to prepare them for the mainstream labour market and increase their chances there.

The laundry is one of the largest and most modern of its kind in Germany, catering to hospitals and senior citizens’ homes and supplying these institutions with rented linen.  

With support from the programme, 14 formerly long-term unemployed men and women have managed to find new, regular occupation, with six of them already helped into permanent employment.  Participants are getting mentoring and qualifications.  The aim is to apply realistic everyday conditions and provide intense coaching to integrate people – some of them out of work for over seven years - back into the regular labour market.

In Mönchengladbach, three organisations have joined forces under the programme and are offering just under seventy regular jobs in various different areas.  They include laundry, other domestic services, care, gardening, landscaping, recycling and second-hand clothes.

In NRW, regular jobs are supported through the ESF-funded programme, ‘Publicly funded employment’ (ÖgB).   Along with a range of additional measures, the scheme facilitates the long-term or even permanent return of the most vulnerable to the regular jobs market.  The programme is co-funded by the Federal Employment Service’s NRW Field Office.