RespAct is an education offer, which empowers children and youth to become active in remodeling their surroundings and to protect themselves from violence.

Youth and children strenghen their self-esteem on the physical, the social, and the emotional level in the context of three project-days at schools and extracurricular facilities. They learn the skill of mastering even difficult situations without relying on violence within the class-community. The methodical units which RespAct offers to primary school girls and boys consist of Boxing-exercises, democratic-educational methods and active Video-work. RespAct therefore, aids children and youth in gaining sensitivity for conflict potential and for solving conflicts in their lives and their environments in a way that is free of violent.

Which competencies/skills do children and youth train in RespAct?

Professional/subject-related competencies: RespAct offers room to children and youth, in order gain knowledge about democracy, conflict solving, security and life quality in their own living environment.

Methodical competnecies: Children and youth gain methodical experience in video-work, in reading cards as well as in structuring and presenting their suggestions for improving their living environment.

Personal competencies: On the level of personal competence, RespAct supports the building of self-confidence of children and youth. Beside learning to appreciate differences and individual strenghts of every person among one another, they learn to recognize and deal with their own emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear through RespAct.

Social competencies: In RespAct, children are motivated to solve conflicts and be engaged actively in their living environments, particularly through the discussion of ideas from RespAct project-days with decision-makers of the respective neighbourhood. Through presenting and discussing the ideas at the RespAct summit, children and youth learn to stand up and to take responsibility for their own ideas. When adressing problems that children and youth face, RespAct aims at developping especially these sustainable solutions, in which the younger ones can be engaged.

Next to the democratic engagement in shaping one’s own environment, RespAct sets the goal of supporting fairness for girls and boys when dealing with one another. Strenghening the classroom community makes the co-working of pupils in their environment sustainably stronger.

How do teachers profit from RespAct?

In getting to know their classes in an open educational form and therefore gaining new perspective on inidividual students as well as on the class community, teachers profit from RespAct. Furthermore, we make sure, that we carefully work together with the teachers on an especially gender-equal and inclusive instruction setting.

Who can participate at RespAct?

RspAct adresses children and youth at the age of 8 to 14 years. Any place, where groups of children and youth are present, there is a possibility for carrying out RespAct. Those can be youth centres, youth clubs, and generally different kinds of facilities that do youth welfare services and youth protection work. The projects are especially suitable for being held in a school context though.