Rural municipalities and small towns in North Rhine-Westphalia

The town of Altenberge with its six farming communities is located near Münster. Of its approximately 12,000 inhabitants, around 2,000 are under the age of 18 and 1,300 are over 65.

Family-friendly services

The Family Alliance Altenberge offers several points of contact for families: In the Haus für Alle, the alliance offers a wide range of counseling services for people with a migration background, for families in general and young parents as well as in cases of homelessness. There are also open meeting places such as the Digital Café. The Haus Kindertraum is a place for young families and pregnant women to get involved and network.

In addition, the family alliance has set up a sustainable second-hand store, a bicycle repair shop and a repair café, a voluntary language school and individual projects such as "Wir für Kinder", Demokra-Tisch, Kinderrechte Park, a round table on child protection and a large vacation program.

Around 20,000 residents live in the six East Westphalian villages of Hiddenhausen, 17.7% of whom are under 18 and 23.8% over 65.

Family-friendly offers

The municipality's family concept is open to all forms of family coexistence and is designed to be intergenerational. Starting with the older population, the office for senior citizens and people with disabilities serves as a point of contact and advice. It also offers smartphone consultation hours and creative groups.

The "Young buys old" campaign is aimed at young families and helps them to purchase properties that are at least 25 years old.

Open to all age groups is the Kulturwerkstatt. It offers a space to implement creative ideas.

In the Eifel region, eleven village communities together form the rural municipality of Nettersheim with just under 8,000 inhabitants. Around 16.6 percent of the population are under the age of 18 and around 22.4 percent are over 65.

Family-friendly offers

Nettersheim sees a family- and child-friendly living environment as the key to its own future viability and resilience. One cornerstone of this is the Family Center with offers in the areas of upbringing, support, health, education and culture. Current and future needs are taken into account when planning the program. A special advisory service offered by the family center is "When children's souls suffer - strength through community", which the municipality launched in response to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nettersheim attaches particular importance to an intact natural and recreational landscape and lays the foundation for education for sustainable development with the Eifel Nature Center.

As the northernmost town in NRW, the town of Rahden in East Westphalia-Lippe has a broad and diverse understanding of families and has set up the Family and Senior Citizens Office for its 16,000 inhabitants. Rahden has developed several innovative concepts for the under-18s, who make up 17.9 percent of the population.

Family-friendly services

The Familienburg is the place to go for (expectant) parents looking for a midwife, toddler group, early music education, sports courses for mothers or other services.

Rahden has also rethought the topic of playgrounds: the app SPIELPLATZTREFF provides an overview of Rahden's playgrounds, which also includes the pump track facility suggested by citizens.

For the over 65s, who make up 22.8 percent of the population in Rahden, Rahden has launched the "Generation 65+" campaign. Here, smartphone courses, games and cinema afternoons, volunteer transport services and much more are planned and implemented.