I was reading an article recently which said only 1 in 4 children believe they are valued as a resource by adults and are given significant roles in their community. The inference being that only 25% of our children know their place in the world and the other 75% are disconnected from their community and civic engagement.

Can we turn this around? I believe so. Empowering young people with the ability to take action is extremely important. Talk to your children about community issues and ask them what they care about most. If they love animals, they could donate blankets and towels to their local animal shelter. If they don’t want people to go hungry, they could donate to a local food bank. Even better: ask your children if they have an idea of what they can do for their issue. The more kids are taking charge of this process, the better. Tell your children that these small acts will make a big difference and ask if they want to get their friends involved.

With that in mind, last week the Harakeke children undertook a school litter clean-up session. We wore gloves, so our hands didn’t get dirty, and in only around 15 minutes we had picked up so much rubbish around the lower part of our school.

We categorised the rubbish, and found that plastic wrappers were the most common rubbish left lying about in our playground.

We think living in Lyttelton, with the sea so close, we need to be really careful about rubbish lying about, as it will very likely end up in our beautiful harbour.

We noticed the children gained a huge sense of pride at making a positive difference to their environment. The feeling of actively participating in making a change, and helping our local environment, is priceless. This empowerment will help reduce their anxieties about our earth’s (and their own) future. Let’s keep it up Lyttelton!