Who we are
FINDER e.V. is a German non-profit registered association (gemeinnütziger Verein) founded in 2013 at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University. We are a specialist organisation for evidence-based prevention and health promotion – not a traditional membership association, but an operating non-profit that delivers professional training, organisational development, and research projects across the German public-health prevention field.
Statutory foundation
Our work is anchored in § 20a of the Fifth Book of Social Code (SGB V), the statutory framework under which Germany’s statutory health insurance funds finance prevention in settings such as schools, municipalities, and residential youth welfare institutions. FINDER is an accredited provider under this framework.
What distinguishes our approach
- Evidence first. We only implement methods for which there is sound evaluation evidence, drawing on the German Green List of Prevention, the EUDA Best Practice Portal, and international registers such as Blueprints Programs (University of Colorado).
- Setting-based. Rather than delivering isolated single interventions, we work with the structures where children and young people grow up – schools, municipalities, residential youth welfare.
- Ethically accountable. We subscribe to the European Prevention Quality Standards and maintain a standing independent Scientific Advisory Board.
- Scientifically transparent. Every programme we run is tied to published evidence and accessible to external evaluation – usually through named university partners.
Our values
- Gemeinnützigkeit – non-profit orientation
- Wissenschaftlichkeit – scientific rigour
- Transparenz – transparency towards funders, partners, and the public
- Selbstbestimmung – respecting the self-determination of target groups
- Ko-Kreation – co-creation with partners rather than top-down delivery
- Vielfalt – recognising diversity as a resource in prevention practice
Brief history
- 2013 – Founded as “Akademie für Soziales Lernen und Bildungsinnovation” at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University.
- 2015–2019 – Expansion of professional training portfolio: REBOUND, Unplugged, EUPC.
- 2020–2022 – FINDER becomes the nationwide implementation partner of the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony State Prevention Council) for Communities That Care, which has been in use in Germany since 2009.
- 2022 – Rename to FINDER e.V.; central office in Berlin.
- 2024 – Simultaneous start of REBOUND 2.0 (Federal Ministry of Health), RBYC-Adapt (consortium with Johns Hopkins and Charité Berlin), and CTC-3V (Federal Ministry of Justice).
Legal and operational details
- Legal form: eingetragener, gemeinnütziger Verein (registered non-profit association)
- Registration: Amtsgericht Mannheim, VR 333717
- Non-profit status recognised by Finanzamt Heidelberg, originally confirmed 15 May 2013
- VAT ID: DE342983758
- EU Participant ID: 897307716
- Registered seat: Heidelberg
- Operational office: Schützenstraße 6A, 10117 Berlin
Organisation and governance
FINDER is led by a three-member Management Board. The organisation is advised by an independent five-member Scientific Advisory Board drawn from German, Swiss, and European academic and policy institutions.
Contact
For English-language inquiries, please write to info@finder-akademie.de or see our contact page.