Centre for the Young and Old, Langen

The idea

With the “Zentrum für Jung und Alt” (Centre for the Young and Old), the initiators of the project in Langen, namely the Mothers’ Centre (Mütterzentrum) and the Senior Citizens’ Welfare organisation (Seniorenhilfe), have combined a diverse range of networked services under a single roof. The main aim is to lessen the burden on women, mothers and families, and provide them with support. For example, the Lange Senior Citizens Welfare organisation runs a skills exchange to arrange the different kinds of assistance that elderly people need.

People who give help to others receive credits which they can cash in to pay for help they need themselves.

The Mothers’ Centre is primarily open to young families with the aim of helping mothers and also fathers to better reconcile work with family life. Related advice and courses are on offer along with family-relief services, such as child care. A parents’ service arranges babysitters, nannies or child minders, for whom the Mothers’ Centre offers both basic and further training and education.

The centre

New, two-storey, accessible building with an open area of 62 square meters on the ground floor for use as an “open meeting place”, the rooms occupied by the Senior Citizens’ Welfare organisation, multi-purpose and seminar rooms. The upper floor is largely reserved for children, with supervision, rest and homework rooms. The Mothers’ Centre also has four rooms of different sizes, one of which is used as an office and the others for seminars and training events.

Address

Langen, Hesse, Germany