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The World Council of Churches (WCC) today releases a collection of curated resources to support churches, church-run schools, Sunday schools and summer camps in their ongoing efforts to promote care for children and youth through intergenerational climate- and environmental justice. The toolkit supports the Churches’ Commitments to Children, in which climate initiatives for and with children is an important pillar.

“Many of the young climate activists around the world come from churches,” said WCC interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca. “WCC has created this toolkit to help churches to provide space for the development of solutions and promote the adaptation of our systems with and for children and youth.”

According to Frederique Seidel, WCC’s senior advisor on children’s rights, the Churches’ Commitments to Children Online Platform has received many requests to support intergenerational climate justice initiatives. These requests motivated the development of the toolkit that gathers dozens of resources to empower churches to take action for climate justice.

“We have witnessed that engagement of children and youth in climate solutions is the best way to respond to the eco-anxiety, which has increased among children around the world. Many of the tools can also be adapted for uplifting activities during confinement in the COVID-19 context,” said Seidel.

The toolkit invites readers to get informed, get inspired and take action for climate justice. The online publication is being released during the European summer break so that teachers and facilitators have time to integrate the material into the new school year and Sunday school plans, which in some parts of the world start in September.

The development of the toolkit was supported through the Keeling Curve Prize, which was awarded to the WCC in 2019 for its global warming mitigation efforts.

You can download the toolkit here.

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