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Last updated: 23 November 2008
The Go-Givers[External website] project aims to explain and promote understanding of charity and empathy among 4-11 year olds through taking part in community activities.
Free and useful online materials will be provided for teachers, parents and pupils at primary schools across England, including over 70 recommended learning activities for Key Stages 1 and 2.
The project also uses animated characters and original stories written for children to enable younger pupils to understand what it means to play an active part in your community at local, national or international levels.
Campbell Robb, Director General of the Office of the Third Sector, said:
“The instinct to think about the welfare of others lies at the heart of a thriving civil society, and primary school is often the time when children first learn what means to put the needs of others alongside their own. This imaginative and creative project aims to provide valuable opportunities for children to learn what it means to play an active role in the society they're growing up in, and to help teachers and parents support their understanding.”
Tony Breslin, Chief Executive at the Citizenship Foundation said:
“The primary school is where teachers nurture young lives and where children learn to interact with others. Go-Givers seeks to show primary school children how they can grow up to be an active part of a caring society, and to encourage them to think about others; through community action, charitable support and the democratic process.
“Primary schools are already active in promoting charitable activities. Go-Givers seeks to show primary school children the bigger picture, allowing children to think about the issues behind the fun and the fundraising and to empower them to believe they can make a meaningful difference in their school, their community and the wider world.”
These materials are tailored to fit into the Citizenship curriculum as well as the wider primary curriculum, and follow a commitment made by the Government in its 2005 strategy for A Generous Society.
The Office of the Third Sector is putting £690,000 of funding over two years into this project, and pilot testing of materials in a handful of primary schools since September 2006 has produced enthusiastic feedback from teachers.
For more information about the Go-Givers project, please go to Go-Givers[External website] – and for further media enquiries please contact the Citizenship Foundation on 020 7566 5034.