 After this study, he took up various roles in the social and union sectors, such as leader of a Caritas refugee centre, responsible member for the hotel and hospitality sector of the SIT union, social worker with the Swiss evangelical church and consultant at the "Centre Social Protestant".In 1996, Leuenberger founded the "Université Populaire Albanaise" (Albanian Peoples' University) in Geneva, a pilot project for the integration of Kosovar refugees into Swiss life, which he led until 2002.For this work, he received an award for human rights work from "Le Courrier" in 1996.