ECONOMY - ENVIRONMENT
A FEW WORDS
In the fields of Economy and Environment, by developing innovative programmes and interventions, ERGO.Academy supports the process of awareness and education of children and adolescents, while giving the necessary tools to teachers to successfully perform their role in this field. Implementing Economic Literacy, Resource Management and Circular Economy Programmes, children and young people manage to acquire individual and social responsibility from an early age, thus being part of the solution and not the problem, in a society that claims prosperity and sustainable development.
Indicative Programmes:
THE FINANCIAL ALPHABET – AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Duration: September 2019 - August 2021
In collaboration with Actionaid Greece and Aflatoun International, and utilizing the sponsorship of the European Investment Bank, ERGO.Academy has constructed and implemented a two-year long innovative educational programme of circular economy for students of numerous Elementary and Gymnasium schools nationwide.
The aim of this programme has been for children to enhance their financial knowledge ("Economic Literacy"), by developing skills of cooperation, critical thinking, linking the concept of economics with sound resource management, while understanding their role as part of the solution of social economic problems, as active citizens.
During this program, 547 primary and secondary school teachers were trained directly by program instructors, while more than 2,000 teachers throughout Greece have access to the original educational material. Through them, 8,250 students are directly beneficiaries, while through promotion and dissemination actions, the beneficiary students are expected to approach 42,000. Finally, more than 10,000 parents are expected to be immediately informed by the action about the benefits and techniques of the circular economy.
THE EARTH IS IN DANGER
Duration: March 2018 - May 2018
ERGO.Academy has created an interactive environmental tale for kindergarten and elementary school children through the method of educational drama which concerns both the development of environmental awareness and the establishment of the belief that each of us, no matter how small we feel, can be active member in maintaining sustainability. In this intervention, 45 children of grades A and B of a Primary multicultural school of Athens, participated.
During this interactive tale the children took specific roles and, at various intervals, they were invited either individually or as a group to make decisions about the continuation of the story, determining by this way, the future of planet Earth they were going to experience. Through this interaction they have had the opportunity not only to learn about the types of resources and their intensive forms of exploitation in recent years on our planet, but also to realize the magnitude of their own contribution to sustainability as new members of this society. They were invited through their roles to collaborate, to reflect on the current environmental situation of planet Earth, to discuss, discover and propose solutions, to understand the ethics behind resource management and to feel active members of the solution of environmental problems.
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Duration: October 2017 - February 2018
Taking into account the global goals for Sustainable Development, ERGO.Academy designed and implemented an experiential education program in Athens at the “Child & Family Support Center” of the SOS Children's Villages, which aimed to help children deal with the problem of waste and its social and environmental parameters as well as to recognize as a solution to the problem the triptych: Reduction, Reuse, Recycling.
Through interactive experiential activities, 90 children became aware of the problem of waste and realized that the solution is in the hands of all of us. They also got to know the materials that are recycled through experiential games of discovery and separation. By utilizing floor-play and questions-games, they learned basic rules of waste management, highlighting the idea of reusing "junk" materials through construction with recyclable materials.