SEKIS (Self-Help Contact and Information Center Berlin) empowers Berlin's citizens to take control of life's challenges through self-help tools and peer support groups.

My personal journey with SEKIS began as a recipient of their services at the end of 2022. I quickly realized the profound effectiveness of their advice and free resources in fostering collective empowerment. Driven by this success, I sought to contribute more. In late 2024, I successfully pitched a project with the help of SEKIS to funders, securing 3 years of dedicated funding. The funding allows me to work 20 hours per week on a crucial mission: increasing Berlin's overall wellbeing by facilitating self-determined health via self-help tools and peer-support groups among Berlin's international citizens (immigrants and/or Germans with an immigration background).

What SEKIS offers:

• A database of existing support groups across a plethora of topics/health challenges

• Rooms across the city for groups to meet in

• Promotion help and tools to create and build peer support groups

• Further education (publications and workshops) all about the topic of peer-support groups:

  • What are peer support groups and how and for what can they be used...?

  • How to get people to join your group...?

  • How can you get your group funded...?

  • How to moderate, lead, resolve conflict...?

  • Much more...

How I'm contributing:

2022:

• • I found SEKIS while looking for a room to house my self-coaching group: "Mindfulness for Mental Health" that later became "The Create Your Life Community."

2023:

• • I supported in the transfer of the the peer-support groups across Berlin from the old database to the new one, ensuring data completeness for all of the self-help contact points.

  • I participated in several photoshoots and video productions to spread awareness and educate people on self-help and peer-support group resources across Berlin:

    • • Jungeselbsthilfe (Young Self-help for people aged 18-35)

      • 40-Years SEKIS Celebration Video 

      • Video version of the self-help contact point map

      • Self-help and peer-support groups for unique challenges faced by immigrants

2024:

• • I created and managed a traveling exhibition tour of an exhibition that tells the 40-year historical story of SEKIS:

    • • The story highlights how peer-support groups added to democratic and civil society movement across the city, culminating in the recognition of self-help practices and groups as the fourth pillar of the German health care system. 

      • I brought the exhibition into several Berlin boroughs in public places like City Halls, Libraries, Universities, and Neighborhood Houses.

  • I created an awareness-spreading campaign for my peer-support group, The Create Your Life Community, by getting the group funded by the AOK and organizing six self-help workshops facilitated by international facilitators that took place inside the group meetings. See the one and only newsletter edition where it's all described. I issued it some months before I pitched my project idea to SEKIS, which then became the expansion of this group as I could no longer run the group and the project at the same time.

  • I facilitated several workshops teaching self-leadership premises that aid in dealing with and coming out of depression within the "Young and Depressed" project at the self-help contact point in Mitte, StadtRand gGmbH

  • I facilitated the creation and stabilization of an English-speaking self-help group for depression.

2025:

• • I've been leading a project that aims to spread awareness about SEKIS' offerings via the English language for international citizens of Berlin as well as supporting people in joining or creating their own support groups / self-organized initiatives.

  • I facilitated a "start-up" workshop that taught people how to start their own peer-support group.

  • I am currently planning The Berlin Mental Health Labs: a series of intensive, interdisciplinary workshops that serve as an incubator empowering and facilitating Berliner immigrants of all walks of life to create sustainable health solutions for increased (mental) health across the city. The citizen-led experiment begins in Spring 2025 and goes until November 2027.

SEKIS Berlin has provided me with a playground of opportunities to step into my creativity and leadership. I would say it has provided me with 100% better resources and structure than any job I ever had. It did so well, that I effortlessly was able to create a job of my own within the network, grow, and now be able to serve and impact many more people as a result.

Nestled at the foot of Mount Pisgah in Candler, North Carolina, The Missed Path Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the rehabilitation of rescue horses and fostering meaningful human-horse connection. Every horse that arrives at Missed Path is a survivor who missed the path to care and purpose, bringing their own story of trauma and recovery. These animals are now at the heart of the Missed Path mission, providing a quiet, grounded presence that helps people slow down, notice, and reconnect. Their programs...including Yoga with Horses, Reading with Horses, Breath Work with Horses, Sound Bathing with horses, as well as Painting with Horses...focus on small-group and one-to-one experiences that build partnership with the land and the herd, promoting a healing flow that benefits both horses and humans.

This sanctuary is founded and owned by my coach and friend, Marc DiFrancia and his husband Mike Cooper-DiFrancia. Marc invited me to collaborate on this project early 2025 and it has greatly benefitted me in my growth and internal capacity expansion in a very short period of time. I have been given a structure where I could learn how valuable my natural talents in organization, facilitation, and leadership can be. In its first year of existence as a non-profit, we were able to get a micro-grant and build a solid platform in the Candler and Asheville area. No small feat for a charity in its first year!

What Missed Path Sanctuary offers:

• Rehabilitation and a forever home for horses

• Volunteer positions with the chance to learn life and leadership skills

• Collaborations with local organizations for a healthier community

• Healing opportunities to be around horses and their big, loving hearts:

  • Yoga with Horses

  • Painting with Horses

  • Sound Bathing with Horses

  • Reading with Horses

How i'm contributing:

2025:

• Participating in and moderating weekly operational and outreach strategy meetings

• Support in creating and curating the monthly newsletter: "Sanctuary Stories"

• Website strategy, editing, and sprucing as well as creating and maintaining the blog and Better Together page...ensuring alignemnt with core values and continuity of the sanctuary voice.

WahlheYmat  - a play on the German phrase: "Wahlheimat" aka "Chosen Homeland" is a grassroots initiative focusing on bringing citizens of Berlin together to incubate and act on sustainable ideas for creating a Berlin where EVERYONE feels at home. Since coming in contact with WahlheYmat, I have been met with immense support in getting my voice heard, propelling me forward in my mission.

What WahlheYMat offers:

• WahlheYmat Talks: Monthly panel discussions with locals, natives, immigrants and the like discussing topics on how to come together and create a new, sustainably democratic Berlin with civil society next to the government...not with.

• WahlheYmat Post: is a weekly guide for the international community in Berlin that raises the voices of Berliner immigrants, reports on local events, and shares concrete ways to get involved in building our shared home of Berlin - together!

How I'm contributing:

• I contribute 1-2 articles per month to WahlheYmat post

• I attend almost every WahlheYmat talks, contributing with my presence and voice, as well as talking to attendees and supporting them in their current struggles while being an immigrant here in Berlin and Germany.