Improvement of the living and housing conditions
The work of the association focuses on the improvement of the living and housing conditions of all inhabitants in this city district. However, important target groups are the mostly disadvantaged households, often times represented by children and young people - among them especially the different groups of migrants.

Social-oriented community- and neighbourhood-development
The area-based initiatives and projects of the Planerladen refer both to structural-spatial and to socio-economic questions. Together with the activities of other local groups they serve as visible cornerstones for a social-oriented community- and neighbourhood-development process. The direct contact to inhabitants, their participation and active co-production are crucial elements of that approach. This aims at the promotion of the specific potentials and resources of the different neigbhourhoods.

On site with an interdisciplinary and intercultural team
In 1982 the Planerladen was started in Dortmund "Nordstadt". Today the association is present with several offices in different neighbourhoods, to provide a basic communication infrastructure for the citizens. In the team of the Planerladen allochthonous and autochthonous people, that is to say individuals with and without a migration background, co-operate closely. They bring in expertise from the educational-social area as well as from the planning- and building-field. This delivers the basis for developing a holistic notion of the Nordstadt and for generating an integrated regeneration strategy.

Part of the "Projektverbund Nordstadt"
With its different subsidiaries

• "BASTA - Bureau for Architecture and Urban Development" (for-profit),
• "GrünBau gGmbH - Non-Profit-Company for Employment and Qualification in Urban Renewal", and
• "GrünBau Fairkehrssicherungs-GmbH - Traffic-Protection-Service" (Social-Orientated Business),

the Planerladen forms a project network, the so-called "Projektverbund Nordstadt". The range of the outreach-activities of the whole network builts very much on long-term partnerships with other local and supralocal actors (eg. different sections of the local, the state and the federal government, charitable organisations and churches, neighbourhood groups, housing associations and the local business community).