RespAct! Children stand up for their communities.

After our successful RespAct summer camp in Berlin districts Kreuzberg and Neukölln, we are in the midst of new RespAct project activities.

RespAct in Berlin welcome classes

We are happy to announce that RespAct will further be implemented in Berlin partner schools – since October 2017 this will be done with a focus on children and adolescents in welcome classes. As many young people with refugee background visit schools in Berlin, the demand for efficient programmes enhancing their participation and integration is growing. The new RespAct program will focus on project weeks in Neukölln schools, especially reaching young people in the classes 6 and 7. Beside the classic RespAct approaches, our work in welcome classes will concentrate on verbal- and non-verbal exercises which increase both children’s self-efficacy and belongingness.

Multiplying RespAct’s impact…in Berlin and Europe

As part of the RespAct Neukölln program, we will also share the RespAct method with teachers, educators and local partners. This ensures that RespAct also spreads its impact after the project weeks and the students can benefit from the modules‘ variety for a longer period.

Strengthening young people’s societal participation is a major need not only in Germany. Therefore, we constantly look out for new opportunities to share RespAct with other people in the world. Our founder, Prof. Heather Cameron, recently held a workshop at the Swedish university of Umeå, presenting RespAct in front of Women in Sport and Adventure. The workshop lined out the variety of contexts in which RespAct can be used when we working with children and adolescents in any sort of pedagogical setting.

We are excited about RespAct’s new outlooks and would like to thank you for your constant support. We need it to spread RespAct and improve the lives of as many children as possible.

Best wishes,

Your RespAct team

Our RespAct summer camp for children and adolescents in the Berlin districts Kreuzberg and Neukölln was a full success. Between July 24 and August 4, 100 children from socially disadvantaged communities took part in the RespAct program, this year carried out in the Karl-Weise-Grundschule and the intercultural youth center Loyal e.V.

Getting to know your environment…
In a sporty and playful way, the two weeks were devoted to environmental protection in the children’s neighbourhood. Together with Stadtnatur Berlin, the children got to know about animals in the nearby Hasenheide park and learned about their district in an engaging neighbourhood rallye. What became obvious: Kreuzberg and Neukölln both have a lot of beautiful places where the children like to play and have fun, but the young participants also named some problems they face in their environment – e.g. polluted playgrounds, littering and unsafe areas, to name a few.

…and shape it!
Under the slogan “RespAct your Neighbourhood”, the children not only learned to formulate their interests, but also to actively promote them. Therefore, a large part of the summer camp was to consider together how problems such as waste separation and avoidance can be approached. In an upcycling workshop the children created their own bags, made of old t-shirts, separated waste and learned how to recycle its raw materials. In cooperation with BSR, we entered the streets and swung the brooms to make the nearby playgrounds clean and safe again. In addition, we visited the BSR waste collection center to take a closer look at where the whole of the garbage we produce is going to land.

Present your ideas in the Town Hall
At the end of the RespAct summer camp, the participating children visited the Neukölln Town Hall, where they met representatives of various political parties. The children presented what they had learned over the past two weeks and formulated their desires and ideas for their neighborhood. The ideas ranged from additional garbage cans and safer playgrounds to an increasing number of bikeways in their districts.

Afterwards, the RespAct summer camp concluded at a closing ceremony with all participants and their families. And many happy smiles on the children’s faces.

Best wishes,

Your RespAct team