Mission Statement of the eva - Evangelische Gesellschaft Stuttgart e.V. 

The aims and basis of our work

The eva - Evangelische Gesellschaft Stuttgart e.V. is a diaconal enterprise.

We consist of the eva - Evangelische Gesellschaft e.V. (non-profit) and its subsidiaries, the eva Heidenheim gGmbH (non-profit), the eva-Seniorendienste gGmbH (non-profit), the center of rehabilitation Rudolf-Sophien-Stift (non-profit), the social company Neue Arbeit gGmbH (non-profit), the youcare gGmbH ( non-profit ), the publishing house and bookshop of the Evangelische Gesellschaft Stuttgart GmbH and the Evangelische Gemeindepresse GmbH.

Evangelische Gesellschaft, Neue Arbeit and youcare offer their services above all in the area of greater Stuttgart, the eva Heidenheim in the Kreis Heidenheim, the eva-Seniorendienste in the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis.

The Gemeindepresse issues the church newspaper Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt Württemberg for the area of the Protestant Church in Württemberg.

The publishing house and bookshop of the Evangelische Gesellschaft Stuttgart GmbH publishes magazines. Its bookshops are located in Württemberg.

The basis of our diaconal activity

Diakonia is the expression of faith in Jesus Christ expressed in active caring.

How we understand human beings and our task

We believe that all human beings are unique persons created and loved by God. That constitutes their dignity.

Every human being has the right to take part in the life of society, to individuality and freedom, to take responsibility and decisions about their own life, to develop their personality in respect for themselves and the other. This also applies to the fields of housing, work, community, religion and sexuality.

We offer our services to all those who cannot (yet) lead a life in their own strength. We are partners of the people who turn to us. In cooperation with them, we are guided by hope for change.

Many cases of hardship have their causes in society. Hence we are attentive to developments threatening human dignity. We bring them to the public attention and work to counter them.

In so doing, we make an important contribution to social peace and the quality of life of citizens.

Our aims

Whether we counsel or support people in crisis and other situations, place them in jobs or meet their need for education, information and reassurance, our aims remain. We want:

• to enable people to lead a life in dignity
• to enable people to lead a life in dignity,
• to relieve people in distress,
• to name the causes of hardship and – if possible – remove them,
• to strengthen faith, through what we say and what we do,
• to awaken and foster social responsibility.

Social responsibility and political action

We play a substantial part in taking social responsibility and political action on behalf of Protestant churches.

We shape the system of need-related assistance through:

• social policy planning
• developing and offering our own services and assistance
• cooperating with the local authorities, church parishes, other diaconal and charitable organisations, businesses and self-help groups

Partners on the marketplace

We are in competition with other providers. We face up to this competition because it spurs us on in our efforts to meet the need, deliver quality and optimise costs. The crucial point is that we preserve the quality of our work and the range of assistance available.

Partnership and advocacy

We do not just work out practical solutions for people for – and with – people. Rather we understand ourselves to be advocates of their needs by actively intervening in the public debate. We stand up for social justice and social responsibility. We remind ourselves, governments and churches of the obligation to care for the vulnerable and to consider their interests

Professionalism and quality

Our assistance is guided by people’s needs, their power to help themselves and their life story. That includes:

• setting up personal relationships in which change is possible,
• supporting people in finding, devising and reviewing achievable aims for the assistance they want to accept;
• self-help takes priority over care and paternalism; we provide as much assistance as is possible and necessary
• with our services we go down to the local level as far as possible and seek solutions in the respective life setting;
• we are easy to reach in terms of location and opening hours;
• we attach importance to professional skills and capacity for personal relations;
• we seek to be reliable partners and provide quality services for companies;
• we review the results of our work in order to preserve, develop and expand our range of services. 

Cost efficiency

We harness all available resources efficiently and appropriately.

Internal and external transparency of expenditure and income is a matter of course. We request full cost coverage of recognised contractual service.

Since the assistance needed must not fail for lack of money, we depend on donations and the resources we generate ourselves. In addition to expanding our work, these funds go to finance activities that seem particularly important in terms of our understanding of diakonia.

Co-workers

We professionals and volunteers affirm together the aims and basis of our undertaking and pattern our work on them.

Volunteers are essential for our work. Hence it is very important to enlist the support of voluntary workers, assisting and accompanying them in their activity.

We operate in interesting areas of work that give us the opportunity to use and develop our abilities.

Professional and human skills, our willingness to work, show creativity and gain enjoyment from our work – these are the basis of our success.

We shape our ministry in partnership. That means that we keep one another informed, respect each other, are open to criticism, work transparently and give mutual support.

For personal and professional development, our enterprise does its best to provide in-service training and supervision. This includes an opportunity for pastoral accompaniment and time for quiet and reflection.

We have plausible, transparent leadership for all:

• co-workers are carefully inducted into their work
• our duties and responsibilities are transparent and documented in writing
• through agreed goals we are involved in decisions and assessments at an early stage
• we are not only assigned tasks but also competences and responsibilities

We are successful when people we encounter in our work have the feeling it is beneficial and helpful.

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