As a historic center of business, culture and education, Leipzig has now also been home to the "House of the Self-Employed" since the beginning of September this year. The kick-off meeting to launch the project took place in the newly furnished offices on 7 September. The "House of the Self-Employed" project is part of the ESF federal program "Future Centers", which aims to support solo self-employed and platform workers (crowdworkers) in the digital present. The aim is to represent and strengthen the interests of these groups and to focus on their situation, working conditions and needs.

The Department of Information Systems and Systems Development supports the "Haus der Selbstständigen" in the development and implementation of an online platform. In addition to the local "Haus der Selbstständigen", the online platform is intended to be an address for those interested in accessing the expertise of the "Haus der Selbstständigen", networking and continuing their own training. From a scientific point of view, innovative methods and technologies are being investigated in order to make the platform and the learning opportunities more target group-oriented and conducive to learning.

Further information can be found in the article on the project launch: https: //publik.verdi.de/ausgabe-202006/wir-packens-an/ and on the official website of the "Haus der Selbstständigen": https: //hausderselbststaendigen.info.

Consortium leader and project sponsor: INPUT Consulting gGmbH
Project partners: Department of Self-Employed Workers of the United Services Union (ver.di), Institute of Sociology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Department of Information Systems and Systems Development at the University of Kassel
Project funding: Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the European Social Fund (ESF)