Sweden – Concept
Let´s go Kids Arvidsjaur SWEDEN
Background:
Our society has changed in recent years. The gaps in society have become larger and knowledge gaps and marinalization are becoming an increasingly clear pattern where children and young people in exclusion have had increasing problems entering society.
Knowing how a society is structured and how democracy, justice and community should work is not obvious today and where we believe that we as a municipality can help to get a nuanced picture of how it works.
In our first meeting in Bernburg we have seen how to create a minicity for children where you can reach the cornerstones of how a society is built and organized. A city where only children are welcome and where they can try to ”work” in a variety of professions.
Our concept, Let´s go kids:
Let´s go Kids will work like a normal small town. It gives the participating children a playful way an realistic insight into how a society is structured and how it works and what the adult world can look like. The entire daily process that adults go through is implemented in Let´s go kids town in a child friendly way. The whole concept is pedagogically designed so that children can understand and take it all in how a society works.
In light of the above, through Let´s go kids we want to bring young people into a community that is based on democracy primarily as perhaps the most important building block but also where learning, inclusion, community and social studies in its ultimate form are other important building blocks.
In connection to a festival in Arvidsjaur called ”Let´s go Arvidsjaur”, which runs for a few days in summertime, we want to create this mini-city for the children in the ages 7-12 years. We want to create a very open and inclusive environment where children are welcome to discover how a society is structured and how it all works. The environment must be gratifying, inspiring, educational and inclusive. We will build the city in the form of small houses where different professions are represented and where the children can ”work” and earn their mini-city money.
We also want to involve slightly older young people as Let´s go kids helpers. Through the municipality´s holiday work offer, we will find young people who will work as helpers in the small houses and help the children to carry out their ”work” When it comes to the holiday workers, we will carefully prepare them for their mission.
Together with our young people and the children, we want to create a new way of learning and through that community shape a warmer and better society.
Expected results
Young people will learn democracy, justice and community with others. They get an insight into what the adult world looks like in a pedagogically playful way. The children get to try working in different workplaces and show their skills and knowledge.
The children´s learning can be summarized as;
- To try out different professions and thus discover their own skills and abilities
- A realistic insight into how the adult world works
- They get an insight into how a society is structured, the social kontext etc
- Strong connection to democracy and what it stands for
- Gets an understanding of the importance of money, taxes etc
Benefits at the society level can be summarized as;
- A new interesting learning arena
- Weave together many components in our society for collaboration
- Create a meeting place for children, parents, organisations, companies and municipal officials to interact
- Educate children to become responsible adults
- Introduce concepts such as democracy, breaking gender stereotypical views etc. to our youngest citizens to create a good future for the children themselves, for us adults and for our society
Reusing sustainable values and everyone´s equal value feels valuable to us. Maintaining a democratic approach and diversity is important in times of unrest around us. It creates a balance to our cunsumer society where norms and attitudes are important to highlight into the young people so it brings pathos and a belief in the future.
A social exchange will take place between different groups and individuals regardless of language, religion, ethnicity and origin. We see inclusion in our society as the single perhaps most important nut to crack and Let´s go kids stands for just that-inclusion.
Budget for 2018-10-01 – 2019-09-30
- Woodmaterial: 25.000 SEK
- Screws, nails etc: 1.000 SEK
- Food for children: 10 000 SEK
- Material to the roofs: 10 000 SEK
- Sum: 46 000 SEK
When it comes to budget, it is extremely difficult to calculate, but we have made an attempt which is based on experince from the ”Kinderstadt goes Europe” project. We will seek funding from stakeholders at the national level.
Micke Åhman resurscentrum
