Infrau e. V. – Intercultural Counselling and Education Centre for Women, Girls and Senior Women

Location of infrau e. V., Höhenstraße 44, Frankfurt am Main
Foto: Karin Kraus

Infrau e. V. is an intercultural counselling and education centre founded in 1984 in Frankfurt am Main for migrant women and their families from Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.

The association, which is independent of any denomination or political party, provides intergenerational, low-threshold counselling, education, information and leisure services that serve the integration, social participation and equal rights of migrant women. The aim of these services is to strengthen the competences of women and girls and thus to counteract the discrimination and exclusion of migrant women.

Counselling is offered in Arabic, Bosnian-Herzegovinian, German, English, French, Greek, Croatian, Kurdish, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish.

History

The association infrau developed out of the model project Mutter-Kind-Beratungszentrum (Mother and Child Counselling Centre), launched by the Federal Government in 1979 to support emigrated women and their children “in regaining the self-confidence they had lost through migration”.¹ German courses and other counselling services were offered there. In 1984 the project gained the status of a registered association and changed its name to Infrau – Interkulturelle Mädchen- und Frauenarbeit e. V.² Today the association is called infrau e. V. – Interkulturelles Beratungs- und Bildungszentrum für Frauen, Mädchen, Seniorinnen (Intercultural Counselling and Education Centre for Women, Girls and Senior Women).³

Self-image

The association is a feminist, intergenerational project.⁴ Infrau advocates a culture of welcome that enables social participation and values diversity. The founders have made it their goal to make visible the resources of people with a migration history and of other marginalised groups, and to provide them, through language and political education, with the basis for social participation and thus for a self-determined life.⁵

Through a wide range of educational, counselling, information and leisure activities for women and girls, participants are to develop greater independence and self-confidence and to have their individual opportunities for personal development promoted.

The association understands contacts across cultures, religions and generations as a further important pillar of integration. In this way, fear of contact and prejudice are reduced and a coexistence based on mutual appreciation is made possible.⁶

Intervision, supervision and coaching are the instruments that the association’s staff use in order to examine their own stereotypical elements of thinking and acting. Only reflection on one’s own basic assumptions and patterns of action allows insight into the way prejudices arise, so that they can be countered effectively.⁷⁸

Areas of work

Psychosocial counselling

The association’s psychosocial counselling work is oriented towards the individual needs of the women and girls and covers all areas of life.

The focal points for girls and young women up to the age of 27 are intercultural education and linguistic, educational and vocational support, in order to help participants develop a self-determined plan for their lives and an identity of their own.⁹

The counselling for adult women concentrates on the areas of partnership, children/upbringing/childcare, vocational training/unemployment, integration and health.¹⁰ Parents also receive support in coping with their parenting tasks through socio-educational guidance, psychosocial counselling and help in dealing with public authorities and other institutions.¹¹

Older migrant women find support at infrau in the areas of housing, health, care and dealing with public authorities.

The aim of the counselling is to encourage all girls and women to exercise their rights and to make full use of all the possibilities that lead to an improvement in their individual life situation.¹²

Language education and employment

For infrau e. V., a confident command of language is an important prerequisite for moving through society with self-assurance and for achieving success in education and employment, and it therefore represents a core task of integration work. German and literacy courses are consequently offered for all age groups.

In the integration courses, which are designed according to the principles of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), women are taught comprehensive German language skills at levels A1 to B1 within 900 hours. Job-related German courses with childcare are also offered.

Girls and young women receive support in their training and in the further development of their skills. In addition to homework supervision and language lessons, infrau e. V. offers girls and young women support in making self-determined decisions about their school and career paths.¹³¹⁴

Political education

Political education is understood as a further component of identity formation: at infrau e. V., girls and young women are given the opportunity to inform themselves politically and to get involved.

In cooperation with the association beramí, the project Mehr Bock auf Politik – Mehr Mut zum Gestalten (More Enthusiasm for Politics – More Courage to Shape Things) was developed, in which young women and girls are accompanied by politically active mentors and gain insights into possibilities and strategies for political participation.¹⁵

In the project talk of g!rls, young women and girls come together to discuss the themes of the International Day of the Girl and to plan activities.¹⁶

Since 2015, infrau e. V. has additionally been running training sessions in Frankfurt vocational schools to raise awareness of discriminatory statements and assaults. The association aims to create an awareness that forms of discrimination have structural causes and that sexist attacks and discriminatory behaviour should not be understood as exclusively individual experiences.¹⁷ In this way, young women and girls are to be encouraged to exercise their rights and to defend themselves against discriminatory statements and actions.¹⁸

Information, leisure and cultural education

Information, leisure and cultural activities are among the core tasks of infrau e. V. These activities range from health education through courses for learning to swim and to ride a bicycle¹⁹ to events on climate and environmental protection.²⁰ The association also offers space for encounters as well as creative and cultural activities²¹ and, for older women, a meeting group for senior women.²²

Girls and young women have access to an open drop-in group and to various holiday and leisure activities. Since 2010 there has been, for example, the “Pädagogischer Mittagstisch” (educational lunch table), where girls and young women can learn about healthy nutrition.²³

A mother-and-child café is offered for mothers with small children.²⁴

The association also organises family days on which families can visit places of interest in Frankfurt am Main.

Since its founding, infrau e. V. has supported more than 12,000 women and girls (as of 2020).²⁵

Work in the network

Infrau e. V. also campaigns at the socio-political level for the equal participation of migrant women. The association brings this concern into networking bodies such as working groups, round tables and expert committees.²⁶

The association also works closely with other organisations and providers in the fields of youth, women’s, family and integration work. Embedded in a network of specialist agencies and experts, migrant women can, where necessary, be informed about further support services and referred to them.

In response to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, five Frankfurt women’s organisations have joined forces to form the “Initiative Frankfurter Frauenträger (IFF)”. Alongside infrau e. V., its members are jumpp – Ihr Sprungbrett in die Selbständigkeit (Frauenbetriebe e. V.), beramí berufliche Integration e. V., Faprik gGmbH and the Verein zur beruflichen Förderung von Frauen e.V. (VbFF).²⁷

Budget and working methods

Infrau e. V. is an independent non-profit association that is organised within the Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband (German Parity Welfare Association).²⁸

The interdisciplinary and intercultural work that infrau e. V. has carried out since its founding has made the association a recognised partner at municipal and state level:²⁹ The Women’s Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the City of Frankfurt am Main’s departments for sport, youth and social affairs, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and the Sportjugend Hessen are among the association’s main funders.

The association is also supported as an accredited provider of integration courses³⁰³¹ by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

The association further receives funds through private donations.

Team

The association employs ten full-time staff members who are active in various areas of work. The managing director is Pantoula Vagelakou.³²

In addition, 19 freelance and voluntary staff members work in childcare and homework supervision, as German teachers and as course leaders in the initiative Zeig dich!.³³³⁴

Awards

In 2011 the project “Gemeinsam Natur erleben – interkultureller Austausch im Senckenberg” (Experiencing Nature Together – Intercultural Exchange at the Senckenberg) was honoured with the Integration Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main.³⁵ The project, developed by the Senckenberg Natural History Museum and infrau e. V., is aimed at participants in language and integration courses and has the goal of creating cultural exchange in a playful way. Joint events at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum, the Palmengarten, Frankfurt Zoo and the StadtWaldHaus are intended to stimulate this exchange.³⁶

In 2012 the association infrau was awarded the Sports Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main, which is presented under the motto Sport kennt keine Grenzen (Sport knows no borders). It honours clubs, individuals or organisations that “show through exemplary cases how borders can be overcome through and within sport”. Infrau e. V. was honoured for a cooperation project with two sports clubs in which women from more than twenty countries can learn basic skills in cycling and swimming.³⁷

In 2012 the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Seniorenorganisationen e. V. (BAGSO, Federal Association of Senior Citizens’ Organisations) awarded infrau e. V. first prize for its intercultural meeting group for senior women as part of the federal competition Im Alter in FORM – Gesunde Lebensstile fördern. In doing so, the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Seniorenorganisationen e. V. particularly highlighted the “sensitive way of addressing and involving the target group, the needs-based breadth of the thematic orientation, the differentiated concerns of the participants as well as the everyday-oriented design of the educational and support measures”.³⁸³⁹

In 2020 the association infrau itself was awarded the Frankfurt Integration Prize “for the integration and participation of women and girls”.⁴⁰ The Integration Prize is endowed with 15,000 € and was shared between infrau e. V., the Huayin Chinese Language School Frankfurt, the Junge Akademie Frankfurt and the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank.⁴¹⁴²

External links

Website of infrau e. V.

Machine translation: This article was translated automatically from the German original.

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Association, Counselling centre, Feminist organisation, Migration, Social work with girls, Women's history, Women's rights

Empfohlene Zitierweise

Sonja Hintermeier, Karin Kraus
: Infrau e. V. – Intercultural Counselling and Education Centre for Women, Girls and Senior Women. In: Equalpedia.

Online unter:

https://www.equalpedia.org/en/infrau-e-v-intercultural-counselling-and-education-centre-for-women-girls-and-senior-women/

(Zugriff am 26. September 2026).

Erstellt am: 22. September 2026
Verfasser*in: Sonja Hintermeier, Karin Kraus
Zuletzt bearbeitet am: 24. September 2026
Education, Institutions, Social affairs
Association, Counselling centre, Feminist organisation, Migration, Social work with girls, Women's history, Women's rights