The AWO has been campaigning and striving for a just society and a better world for over 100 years. Every person should be able to live equally well in our country. We are active throughout Germany and closely linked to the labour movement. We want a diverse society - diversity means that many different people live together peacefully in our country. No one is excluded and every person is worth the same.

We take on certain tasks that the state cannot perform alone. In Germany, we have more than 18,000 social institutions e.g. daycare centres for children, nursing homes, debt counselling centres, workshops for the unemployed, and migration consulting centres, as well as much more. We employ around 237,000 full-time members of staff. In addition, there are more than 82,000 committed volunteers.

You will be accompanied and strengthened by us through qualified socio-pedagogical counselling. When communication proves to be difficult, then we have translators available. There are no translation costs for you. We also have group offerings where you can learn new things with other people in a similar situation - for example, job application training or an information session on the school system in Germany. We will also inform you how to contact other authorities and institutions and how to apply for benefits. Examples of applications: Application to the job centre or the foreigners' registration office, registration for a place in a kindergarten or application for housing subsidies. 

The Arbeiterwohlfahrt has now been active in migration counseling since the 1950s. Since 2005, we have been providing counseling in the federal program "Migration Counseling for Adult Immigrants" (MBE) on the basis of the Immigration Act. The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI). The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is the approval authority.

We currently have 252 counseling centres located throughout Germany with over 300 qualified specialists