RespAct
Why We Started
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We built RespAct because we kept seeing the same thing: children living in Berlin's neighborhoods knew exactly what was wrong with their local parks, schools, and public spaces - and had no real mechanism to do anything about it. Democracy felt abstract to them because it was abstract. We wanted to make it concrete.
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Schools and community facilities in Berlin were dealing with the growing presence of violence, and children were aware of the problems in their environment and wanted to change them. At the same time, in diverse urban neighborhoods where children come from many different cultural and educational backgrounds, building trust and shared community takes deliberate work. We saw sport as the entry point - a way to build connection and confidence before the harder conversations about power, participation, and change could begin.
What We Do
Using low-barrier sports exercises, video and project work focused on concrete neighborhood issues, participants build self-confidence, practice conflict-solving strategies, and engage in local political processes in their immediate environment. At the RespAct summit, participants discuss their ideas for improvements with decision-makers from business, politics, and the municipality - and experience their ability to shape their surroundings when they see those ideas implemented. In Berlin's Gropiusstadt, for example, children from Walt Disney Primary School identified problems in their local area, raised them at a neighborhood summit, and helped organize a clean-up of the Pippi Longstocking playground.
What We Built
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We designed RespAct as a sports and democracy education project for children and young people aged 8 to 18, delivered through schools and youth centers across Berlin. We used boxing exercises alongside participative videography and role plays to foster community engagement, encouraging children to think about security in their neighborhood and explore effective, non-violent forms of communication and problem solving. The model was built to be practical from the start - not a classroom exercise in civic theory, but a structured process that ends with children presenting their ideas to real decision-makers and seeing results.
What Came Out Of It
RespAct demonstrates that children are not future citizens waiting to participate - they are present-day community members with insight into the places they use every day. When given structured tools and a real audience, they identify problems adults overlook and contribute meaningfully to solutions. The project also became a practical model that Camp Group shared internationally, including through workshops with the German Bundestag's International Parliamentary Scholarships program for participants from North Africa and the Middle East.
Recognition
RespAct is a project of Camp Group which won the Google Impact Challenge Germany in 2016. Heather was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2010, received the German Federal Chancellor's Special Prize from Start Social, and was honored with a BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Award. RespAct sits within a broader body of work - alongside Boxgirls and Girls in the Lead - that has been recognized by the IOC, UN Women, and Women Win as a model for sport-based social change.