Civic Projects for Children: the Green Team One

by Annie Hintsala in Education, November 2, 2008

I try to structure my after school programs in such a way that they include a sense of community, with something to connect the children to a larger part of humanity. Every semester I give the children choices of things they can do to contribute to that larger community whether it be to the after-school group, to the school or to the city and world in which they live. In this first article I have written up some ideas for what I call the Green Team.

For the Green of Thumb: Everyone benefits from having a more beautiful environment in which to live, and from having a closer engagement with that environment. Look around your community for spots to ‘clean up’ or to beautify. You might be able to plant flowers, a garden or trees at your school and then have the children care for them through out the year. It could be as simple as having large flower pots put by the entrance and then kept planted during the different seasons. The children could decorate the pots with fabric paint (wonderful stuff-sticks to plastic pots well) and put their names on it along with the date and year. A wonderful project to look back on and to add to every year with another commemorative pot for the children to plant. Just be sure to keep up with it. An empty flower pot is a sad thing.

For the Green Space: If you have the transportation and the staff, you could take your group to an area to clean-up, like an empty lot or a park. Have them count how many bags of rubbish they collected, and you could even sort out the recyclables. Provide your group with some sort of gloves for the purpose of sanitation, and if you are in an open spot set up the project in such a way that you don’t lose track of the children, particularly if you have very young children in your group. Safety first!

Whatever you choose to do, make an investment of time and energy in it yourself. If the children see you working on the goal they are much more likely to work on it themselves. Even if they don’t show it, even teen-agers want and crave your approval, so don’t be stingy with it! A sincere ‘good job’ every once in a while when it is deserved goes a very long way. Every adult in their lives is an example to emulate and a figure to impress. Be aware of it!