Ute Krenzer- CoPPer team member’s experience of researching the practices of of a voluntary sector organisation

My first days at Rechtsfürsorge e.V. Resohilfe Lübeck (Legal Aid Lübeck), Kleine Kiesau in Lübeck, Germany   

As part of my PhD, I am currently conducting in-depth ethnographic research in a German community-based organisation, which supports persons with criminal justice experiences, to better understand the lived experiences of involvement with the criminal justice voluntary sector. Resohilfe Lübeck is a registered non-profit association aimed at supporting justice impacted persons on their re-integration journeys post prison release. Resohilfe Lübeck also offers comprehensive preparation and an annual training course over 3-4 months for volunteers. Volunteers are trained in offering individual assistance, such as accompanying justice impacted persons to public offices, support in finding accommodation or employment and coping with everyday life, as well as providing additional activities in the prison, for example.

My research at Resohilfe Lübeck is taking place between February 2025 and May 2025. Research in Ireland and interviews have been conducted between October 2024 and January 2025 within the organisation of my Irish employment partner. The two locations invite analysis how the differing, legal, cultural and practice contexts impact the criminal justice voluntary sector and reintegration.   

The building where Resohilfe Lübeck has its offices and living quarters for clients at Kleine Kiesau consists of two medieval building, possibly from around 1600, now painted in a clean white. The organisation, the Rechtsfürsorge e.V. Resohilfe Lübeck, and particularly the ‘67er group’, welcomed me on a Friday (February 7, 2025) with a hearty breakfast in the communal room or lounge, which is also used as a meeting and conference room and comprises of a kitchen area, a large table with chairs, similar to King Arthurs round table, a sofa, a bookshelf where items are placed free for the taking, such as bedclothes or unwanted clothes. The ‘67er group’, made up of four social workers caring for clients of the transitional living facility within the Resohilfe Lübeck building as well as responsibilities for ‘ambulante’ outpatient care in a client’s own home, which is rented by the Resohilfe Lübeck from a building society called TRAVE on behalf of the client, works under the umbrella of §67 of the Twelfth Book of the Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB XII), the German Social Security Code which, amongst other things, addresses the commitment to ‘social assistance’ and covers the issue of overcoming particular social difficulties. Within it, §67 outlines the beneficiaries as “People who have special living conditions associated with social difficulties (who) must be provided with services to overcome these difficulties if they are unable to do so on their own” (Landesportal Schleswig-Holstein, 2020). It is here, where services, such as independent living are specified, and it is here where we find a legal basis for the 67er groups work with offenders since it is stated that insufficient or no housing, as well as unregular, unstable or no income or, for example, being released from prison can qualify as a special living condition (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS), 2003).  

Once a week, early on a Friday morning, this group organises a breakfast for current residents and people in their care, their clients, but also for former clients, who since have moved on and/or secured their own accommodation. The breakfast is seen as a symbol of appreciation of clients and service users and emphasises recognition and part of Resohilfe Lübeck’smission of striving for and working along the principle of human dignity, as one of the 67er group explains to me. The table is set by the four social workers and on the table a find various breakfast roles, plates with cheese, cold meats, carrot sticks and grapes. Boiled eggs, coffee and tea are made for everyone. Since this is my first meeting with employees of Resohilfe Lübeck and clients alike, I bring two trays of cakes, which we cut into small pieces, so there is enough for everyone. One by one, clients join us around the table and the atmosphere is relaxed. I am quickly introduced as a researcher from Ireland that will stay with the group for three months. Noone is surprised but curious. Is Ireland really that green; do I eat Kerrygold cheese all day; do we drink whiskey, or does it rain all day long, are the questions I am faced by. There is a lot of laughter and openness around the table and clients happily tell me a little of their stories. They talk about sicknesses, diagnoses, where they work or which site they live at. In turn, I talk a little about Ireland and myself and before long the jokes are starting to fly. There is no rush in finishing breakfast, we are sitting for more than two hours before the first people are starting to leave. After cleaning up together and filling the fridge and dishwasher, a small group of clients starts playing cards in the common room/lounge while another man starts playing darts with one of those electronic dart machines. I feel comfortable and at ease and I am happy that the first days went so well.