We are a multi-professional healthcare collective from Freiburg, Germany. Our collective includes different professions such as social work, nursing, medicine, health sciences, midwifery, physiotherapy, health and nursing education and psychology. Our working methods are based on grassroots democracy, a flat hierarchy, participation and collective solution strategies.
We are active in Freiburg, in the deep south-west of Germany in between Switzerland and France. Although Freiburg is a relatively wealthy university city shaped by a young student population, it remains unaffordable for many of its residents.
One of our greatest challenges right now is finding suitable and affordable premises. At present, our practical work focuses primarily on outreach activities, multi-professional health counselling, and collaborative work on group processes.
Looking ahead, we aim to establish a community health centre – a solidarity-based policlinic that integrates basic medical care with psychological, social and legal counselling, different therapeutic approaches, community health nursing and community organizing. We want to promote health and prevention at a collective level and enable direct participation in shaping the community health centre.
Our focus is therefore not only on developing a concrete alternative for outpatient medical care, but also on promoting health and social equity and improving the living conditions of people in the neighbourhood.
Supporting people in meeting and organizing with their neighbours is central to this work. Beyond shared struggles, we help create spaces for connection and mutual support. Through talks and surveys, we have found that loneliness is the biggest issue people face in the neighbourhood.
Together with various activist groups, we organize breakfasts, Iftār, neighbourhood fairs and other low-threshold events that encourage people to come together over good food and fun events. We also work with different groups, who invite us for counselling or workshops to their groups, e.g. youth-centres, kindergarten and nursing homes. Through this people can approach and talk to us in spaces where they already live, work and meet in their everday life.
Our goal is to improve healthcare provision in the neighbourhood for everyone. We believe that healthcare services must be aligned with people’s actual needs and lived realities—accessible, equitable, and free from profit motives. We understand health not as an individual matter alone, but as something shaped by social conditions.
The social determinants of health are therefore central to our work. We are convinced that our health is influenced by physical, social and psychological conditions, the environments we live in, and political structures.
--- Solidarische Stadtteilgesundheit Freiburg e.V. Poliklinik Freiburg, Initiative für ein solidarisches Stadtteilgesundheitszentrum https://poliklinik-freiburg.org poliklinikfreiburg@posteo.de Telefon: +49 155 65756130 (Mo. und Mi.: 8 - 13 Uhr, Di. 8 - 16:30 Uhr)
