7 June 2007
CAB/046/07
The Office of the Third Sector, in the Cabinet Office, and education charity The Citizenship Foundation today launched Go-Givers [External website] - a website designed to encourage primary school children to think about living in a kind and caring society.
The project aims to explain and promote understanding of charity and empathy amongst 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 at Go-Givers [External website], 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 A Generous Society strategy.
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.
Notes to editors:
1. For more information about the Go-Givers project, please go to Go-Givers [External
website]
2. For any further media enquiries about Go-Givers, please contact the Citizenship
Foundation on 020 7566 5034, or the Cabinet Office press office on 020 7276 0311.
3. For more on the Office of the Third Sector's charitable giving strategy, please go to:
Office of the Third Sector: Charitable Giving website.
4. In recognition of the increasingly important role the third sector plays in both society
and the economy, the Prime Minister created the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) in
May 2006 to drive forward the Government's role in supporting a thriving third
sector, and join up sector-related work across government: Office of the Third
Sector website.
Cabinet Office Press Office
22 Whitehall
LONDON SW1A 2WH
Tel: 020 7276 0311 - Fax: 020 7276 0618
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Out of hours telephone 07699 113300 and ask for pager number 721338
