Environmental justice and sustainable lifestyles are increasing in importance among children and young people, especially in urban centers. RespAct makes the topics of environmental and water protection, waste prevention and recycling accessible through hands-on games, ceaft activities and direct interventions in the local neighbourhood. Using a participative approach to discuss the improvement of school yards, playgrounds and other public spaces, our participants learn to take responsibility for sustainable neighborhoods. The project aims to reach children and young people between 7 and 14 years of age from German schools with and without experience of migration and asylum.

Goals and methodology

RespAct’s positive learning atmosphere empowers children to explore their neighborhood and to improve their knowledge and skills around waste prevention and conflict solving strategies. The children learn to reflect upon their own waste behavior, to examine the environmental problems in their neighborhood and to develop and implement solutions. The wide range of proven RespAct modules support these learning outcomes, as well as increasing the confidence and resilience of participants. Experiential and sporting methods are used to enhance positive local identification, and include families, teachers and other local stakeholders in the protection of the local environment.

Opportunities for educators

Camp Group puts strong emphasis on the sustainable implementation of its projects. Next to direct project work with children and young people, we provide training in the RespAct method to teachers, social workers, educators or volunteers in our partner institutions. We discuss easy ways of integrating RespAct modules with workshop participants into their own environmental neighbourhood project.