Meeting place De VerbroederIJ can still stay in Amsterdam-North
At the beginning of this year, the VerbroederIJ Foundation was told that at the end of November it had to make way for a four-year period for the arrival of a temporary Tech School on the site. The mayor and aldermen decided differently this month: they want to keep De Verbroederij and will therefore be temporarily housed in the Darlingstraat in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.
The municipality wants to maintain the social function of De VerbroederIJ and sees the foundation as the only candidate for the lease of the site. The meeting place provides the municipality with connection and social cohesion, and is important in the fight against poverty and employment for the vulnerable with the distribution of food packages. a petty to keep De VerbroederIJ place is thousands of times this.
To connect
While the catering company of De VerbroederIJ is run by volunteers and paid employees, there is also a daytime activity for people with a distance to the labor market. They help in the vegetable garden, do odd jobs on the farm or stand in the restaurant. Numerous activities are organized on the site, such as dance evenings, dinners with local residents, music festivals and neighborhood markets.
The VerbroederIJ and the municipality are still discussing the terms of the lease. Co-founder Tania Spaans is ‘very grateful’ that the municipality plans to extend the contract. “We really want to stay there. We now have the opportunity to further deepen what we have started: connecting neighbors from all layers of our society.”
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