The Disabled People Team of Queer Cities e.V. is building pridemerch.de, an online shop for Pride and rainbow merchandise . From the community, for the community.
We want to give queer people with disabilities, but also ALL other people with disabilities, the opportunity to work for Regenbogen and other non-profit organizations in an inclusive company.
We don't want to establish a workshop for people with disabilities, but rather an inclusive company. This is an alternative to the usual workshop models.
Current partners of the inclusion project are:
- AIDS Help Bremen e. V.
- Pride Bremerhaven
- Pride Bremen
- queerhandicap e. V. , Cologne
- CSD Wesermarsch (Nordenham) eV
- Lambda Polska (Szczecin)
- QueerSight (Gdansk)
- Olsztynski Marsz Rownosci (Ollenstein)
The extremely positive assessment by Bremen's State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities proves the main founder, Thorsten Höller, right. It's not about employing people, but about being an inclusive part of society.
The Bremen State Commissioner for People with Disabilities, the Bremen Integration Office and the Bremen Integration Service do not know of any comparable project nationwide that combines rainbow and disability in the same way as the business idea of the activist for queer disabled people.
Here Thorsten presents the new cooperation for World AIDS Day with Aids Hilfe Bremen eV:
The press release: https://de.queer-cities.org/pridemerch-by-team-behinderte/aids-hilfe-bremen-unterstuetzt-th-regenbogen-werkstatt/
And about Thorsten's career as an LGBT activist at CSD Bremen + Bremerhaven eV and Queer Cities eV: https://www.csd-bremen.org/2022/portrait-thorsten-hoeller-team-behinderte/
More about the founding of the Pride Merch Shop
Thorsten, who started as an intern at the Bremen donation station through his disability facility, "ElbeWeser Welten," became the initiator of the " Team Behinderte im Queer Cities e. V. " and is now working with the team to create new jobs in a new non-profit rainbow-inclusion company.
His intention is very clear: "I definitely don't want to go back to a sheltered workshop," says Thorsten Höller (46), who has worked exclusively in sheltered workshops his entire life. Höller has been learning disabled since birth and has worked at the ElbeWeser Welten sheltered workshop in Bremerhaven since September 1, 1995.
When Queer Cities eV, of which Höller is a founding member, set up the " Bremer Spendenstation " (Bremen Donation Station) in early March 2022, the LGBTIQ* activist used his vacation time to get involved. This new commitment and the many contacts with other volunteers (without disabilities) awakened in Thorsten the desire to continue working with Queer Cities at the Bremen donation station after his vacation. So he organized an internship through his workshop for people with disabilities.
Since then, Höller has commuted every day from Bremerhaven to Bremen for work.
In August 2022, his internship could no longer be extended, so Queer Cities eV hired Thorsten on the basis of an external position at ElbeWeser Welten to work with him to develop inclusive workplaces. The idea was due to the coincidence that Höller is also an LGBTIQ* activist and has been a member of CSD Bremen + Bremerhaven eV since 2017. Höller not only ensured that CSD Bremen was accompanied by a BSAG bus for people with disabilities, but is also part of the CSD Bremerhaven team, which supported Thorsten's idea of founding an inclusive online shop from the very beginning .
Thorsten Höller and his supervisor, Queer Cities eV and ElbeWeser Welten, are currently negotiating with AVIB (Amit for Care and Integration) about a budget for work in order to employ Höller permanently and full-time at Queer Cities eV and thus also run the project pride-merch.queer-cities.org .
