Founded in April 2013, the internet café ZwischenSchritt is a day centre for formerly homeless persons aiming at closing the digital gap for the target group and counter exclusion. The project’s primary target group are formerly homeless people; it does not matter, however, if they live in one of Vienna’s homeless shelters or already have their own apartments. ZwischenSchritt is based on a peer-to-peer approach: The people who run the internet café are formerly homeless persons themselves.

Claiming different services like benefits or allowances increasingly requires written or online requests. At the same time, there are fewer social facilities which can take over this task for formerly homeless people. This is where ZwischenSchritt comes in, empowering the target group in several ways, as explained Gertrud Unterasinger, responsible for the management of the internet café ZwischenSchritt: They broaden their computer and online skills and – especially the team members, i.e. those formerly homeless persons who teach the internet skills – learn how to re-integrate into a regular daily structure and acquire and develop competences. As a consequence, they might be able to gain a foothold on the first or second labour market – allowing for a fluctuation that lets one of the internet café’s visitors take over their role as team member. In this way, people who struggle with their everyday life receive help for self-help as they recognise that they can take charge of their lives again.

ZwischenSchritt was nominated for the SozialMarie prize in 2014.

Photo credit: www.samariterbund.net