Municipalities can apply – for the first time, respecting projects in rural areas

Municipalities in the Vera-Meisner district can apply for the title “Municipality of Diversity”.

Vera-Meisner – Spangenberg and Melsungen wish to become one, but none of the towns or municipalities in the Vera-Meisner district have yet applied for the title “Community of the Diversity”.

For the first time, the “Open to Diversity – Closed Against Exclusion” initiative, now with Castle Regional Council, honors municipalities that work with associations, organizations and parishes in rural areas for tolerant, respectful and diverse coexistence does. Several projects in the district are committed to these core values ​​to set the tone for tolerance and an open society.

For three years now, “Open for Diversity” has been honoring projects at the Castle that promote integration, inclusion, participation and intercultural understanding. “With our competition expanding, we are now moving exclusively to rural areas”, says Dagmar Krauss from “Open for Diversity”. Because there are strong voices for diversity here too – cross-generational garden projects, including childcare, community buses or integrated football tournaments. Initiatives such as the family center and social groups in Bad Suden-Allendorf or the Vera-Meisner Sports Group, all committed to integration, may also be felt addressed.

A jury member appointed by the district is sent from each of the six districts of northern Hesse. Winners receive financial aid and are shown online on a “diversity map” as inspiration for further projects, Kraus says. Even in the Vera-Meisner district, cities and municipalities played an important role in shaping partnership and cohesion. There should also be a better network of diverse communities – to develop new projects that show that there is no place for right-wing movement, discrimination and intolerance in the region.

Even outside the competition, people show their attitude: in churches and parish halls in the Vera-Meisner church district, but also in Wittgenhausen town hall, “open to diversity – closed against excommunication” signs are already hanging. (May/FST)