Founded in 2026, Unity In The Community gUG is the new official home for Refuge Worldwide's educational projects, mentorship programmes, talks, workshops and screenings. Building on what we have developed over the last five years, the platform is now based out of our Niemetzstrasse space in Berlin-Neukölln.
Since 2021, Refuge Worldwide's team has received over 3,500 applications to join our workshops, facilitated 2,500+ hour of teaching, hosted 2,000+ participants, held over 675 free DJ practice sessions, 200+ free music studio sessions, and 250+ events across Oona Bar, Niemetzstraße and external locations.
Now led by Leona Ojake as Programme Director, the focus of Unity In The Community is intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary cultural creation and exchange. The aim is to enable people to have equal access to artistic and cultural education and to promote their creative participation and skills.
How do we see the future of Unity In The Community?
We will continue to provide educational opportunities to marginalised and underrepresented groups to help diversify the music and creative scenes. Our projects are aimed to amplify social justice issues by providing a platform for people to share their experiences and stories, while keeping culture alive and strengthening its role as a central and important pillar of society.
Why do we do this?
Economic barriers and underrepresentation in the creative industries too often prevent people from entering employment or growing and developing as artists. Our programmes are designed precisely as a counterweight to that: targeted at underrepresented groups, offered at the lowest possible financial entry point, and rooted in the belief that a more diverse creative scene is a stronger one.
Sweeping cuts to our city's cultural budget have placed enormous pressure on independent organisations like ours, threatening the infrastructure that grassroots creative work depends on. Unity In The Community aims to ensure that Refuge Worldwide can operate outside of the state sphere.
In founding an official non-profit we hope this opens us up to different funding opportunities, meaning we can keep going forward with our work in a more sustainable way.
Thank you to everyone that has led a session, volunteered, partnered with us, and offered advice. We look forward to the future!
