In a Grätzelkreis (Neighborhood Circle) people from all over the neighborhood provide their skills and abilities in support for each other. Each participant can ask for assistance concerning an issue they are encountering. At the same time his or her own talents are available to other people from the neighborhood.  This way participants act as experts in their own cause.

 

This also results in participants expanding their own personal network and becoming less dependent on professional support. The core element of a Grätzelkreis is experiencing the group as a safe place that facilitates growth on an individual level as well as on a group level through collaboration.

 

A group consists of approximately 10 people. The participants are supported by a volunteer from the neighborhood and professionally accompanied by a trained neighborhood circle coach.

 

The Neighborhood Circle is an initiative of the Dutch organization Pameijer. In 2013, Pameijer started with the development of so-called community-supported networks. In the meantime, dozens of Neighborhood Circles have been established all over the Netherlands.

 

In 2020, Austria's first neighborhood circle started in Vienna at the association LOK Leben ohne Krankenhaus.

 

The LOK association is active in the Global Network of Neighborhood Circles focussing on exchange and networking.