LANGUAGE
For Groups
Because… well, who could explain these complex issues better than affected persons themselves?
We offer the following options
"Social Engagement unites the team!"
What is the positive impact of our activities?
SHADES TOURS is Austria’s only company that specifically hires homeless and refugees as employees and thus creates a way of labor market (re) integration.
Participating in our activities enables your employees to change their perspective. The programs stimulate reflection, strengthen the understanding for maginalized groups and serve to reduce prejudices. A feedback that we often get is that our tours strengthen social skills and lead to an increased sense of gratitude and empathy.
Through our corporate activities you make a valuable contribution to the cohesion of your team and enable your employees to get involved. Ideally, having participated in a SHADES TOURS activity, it also stimulates more social engagement internally, such collecting clothes etc.
"It was incredibly powerful and eye opening. A truly memorable experience for all of us."
"This year's Global Day of Discovery at the Renaissance Wien Hotel was part of a SHADES TOURS Tour. In the weeks that followed, clothes were donated for the homeless which were handed over today to a shelter of Caritas Wien! "
"We were touched by the people, stirred up by Dieter's stories, impressed by the performance of the staff of the facility and also our team, all in all we are very, very grateful to have had this experience and will definitely come back."
Our Success
in the first three years
30.000
Participants
15.000
Cooked Meals
132
Cooking-Sessions
17
Guides
2
Guides working at the SHADES TOURS Back Office
1
Guide trained to become a licenced tour guide
5,0 von 5,0
Stars
700+
Ratings
#1
on TripAdvisor
Our Customers
Excursions & Team Outings
Tour on the topic of Poverty & Homelessness
Homeless people explain the issues of poverty and homelessness in Vienna
Discover the different challenges that homeless people face and the diverse possibilities that the Viennese social system offers when people need it the most.
During this two hour long tour your guide – a (former) homeless person himself – will provide you with a mix of facts and personal stories that illustrate the complexity of homelessness.
Together we will walk along the thin line of poverty and wellfare. We will pass places that are related to homelessness and will make you realize the contrasts of the city.
The content is homelessness, its challenges and the solutions that the city provides. While you are learning something new, you contribute to the re-integration of the guide into a stable living and housing situation.
This is not a sightseeing tour – this is a tour about life. It therefore is an educational tour on a socio-politic topic.
Please note that the tour does not visit shelters or expose homeless people. Our guides are affected by homelessness and reject social voyeurism, thus neither other homeless people will be showcasted, nor former hideouts are shown.
Still having questions to the tour? Check out our FAQs.
Tour on the topic of Refugees & Integration
Refugees explain the issues of asylum seeking and integration in Vienna
Was does it mean to flee from your home country? What are the reasons? What are the Austrian policies on asylum and integration? How do you start a new life in a foreign country when you had to give up your previous one?
Refugees and integration are a polarized issue in our society. We believe that it is important to explain these controversial and complex issues in order to enhance understanding and empathy. And who could better explain than people who took the decision to flee their countries?
The content is flight and immigration – its challenges, ways of integration and the personal background of the guide. While you are learning something new, you contribute to the integration of the guide.
This is not a sightseeing tour – this is a tour about life. It therefore is an educational tour on a socio-politic topic.
Still having questions to the tour? Check out our FAQs.
Corporate Volunteering
Cooking in a homeless shelter
Corporate Volunteering Activity for max. 6 participants
Currently we offer this activity only in German – further information in German here
