Braunschweigische Sparkassenstiftung
Together with the Braunschweigischen Sparkassenstiftung, social commitment in the region will be presented. In the past three years, the foundation has supported over 450 projects , including numerous projects related to environmental, educational and social issues. As examples, we present four projects that reflect different focal points of the foundation's work: from environmental education and plastic-free everyday life to financial education and integration and respectful cooperation in schools.
Projects of the Braunschweigische Sparkassenstiftung related to sustainability and social issues
With the first in-house project of the Braunschweigische Sparkassenstiftung, the foundation wants to create or sharpen children's awareness of the need to protect our earth. Young people are introduced to a specific topic through various formats – workshops, exhibitions and project work. The aim is to impart knowledge and sensitize children to environmental and resource issues. The offers are intended to provide impulses to deal with sustainability-related issues in everyday life. The children deal with the question of what contribution individuals can make in everyday life in an age-appropriate way.
The first topic of the series was dedicated to the prevention of plastic waste. The young Braunschweig-based start-up company "Re-Athlete" manufactures sportswear from recycled fishing nets and plastic waste from the world's oceans and industry.
The project partners of Re-Athlete have developed the concept for a workshop on the topic of raising awareness of the plastic problem in the world's oceans: child-friendly lecture and video, outdoor play in the schoolyard, hands-on activity in small groups, thematic bringing together and small gifts made from recycled products. In advance, the teachers were familiarized with the topic and a documentation was written that can be used in the classroom in order to create points of contact for further treatment of the topic in the classroom.
The junior coordinators of the Braunschweigische Landessparkasse closely accompanied the workshops and carried them out together with a representative of the Braunschweigische Sparkassenstiftung. The goodybag as a small souvenir of the workshop is a shoulder bag - made of recycled fabric and filled with a bamboo toothbrush, a cardboard ballpoint pen and soap. In addition, there was a "plastic savings book" in which it can be documented which alternative products have been tried out in everyday life.
Educational project "Financial Knowledge for All"
Project partner: Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Institut/TU Braunschweig – Institute of Finance
The "Financial Knowledge for All" project starts where there is a central need for social action: in the financial education of citizens in the region. Studies show that access to financial literacy varies among the population. At the same time, financial literacy has not yet been systematically taught in school, vocational or academic training. Against this background, the Institute of Finance at the TU Braunschweig developed a three-level educational program that is tailored to the Braunschweig region. In the first stage, a new course for students of all disciplines without an economic background will be established at TU BS. This teaches basic financial knowledge in seven thematic modules – from budget planning, insurance and credit comparisons to savings and investment options and sustainable investing. In the second stage, workshops for trainees will be developed, which will be carried out in planned cooperation with the Braunschweig Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade Chamber of Crafts and regional vocational schools. Here, the focus is primarily on starting to take financial responsibility – for example, when filing your first tax return, dealing with consumer loans or building up private retirement provision. Finally, the third stage addresses the general population of the city of Braunschweig through a series of public lectures. Four interactive events make central financial knowledge accessible in a low-threshold, real-life and free of charge way – regardless of previous education or life situation. The project thus stands for a systematically structured, interdisciplinary and socially relevant educational offer with a high degree of connectivity. It is based on well-founded scientific findings, established didactic principles and a broad network of regional actors. The content and materials are designed in such a way that they can be used in the long term and transferred to other contexts – for example in the context of vocational training or municipal educational work. This is how a regional pilot project for financial education is created.
The project started in October 2025, part one for the students has taken place successfully, and the other project components are being planned. Part three is also to be extended to schools.
German course for refugees
Project partners: KunstKarussell e. V., Bad Harzburg
In the district of Goslar, there is a great need for language learning opportunities with a social space orientation for refugee parents with simultaneous care for their children under the age of three. Through targeted and intensive support, participants can get to know the language and its extended social space in good time and regularly, which can support their entry into everyday life. For parents, structured language support is just as necessary as orientation in their social space – both enable cultural and social participation. An early encounter with the German language can support the development of biographically based multilingualism in children under the age of three.
The target group is mainly people from Ukraine with little or no knowledge of German. The majority of potential participants have already taken part in offers of the art carousel and show interest in developing further in this environment. In addition, many participants become aware of the courses offered through the cooperation of the art carousel with volunteer companions and various integration counselling centres, such as Diakonie or Caritas, as well as KVHS Goslar. The topics of social space orientation are prepared and followed up in class. Personal concerns and interests serve as a basis for increasing the participants' motivation to learn and enabling them to identify well with what they have learned. Everyday practical examples are filled with life in role plays and group tasks.
As in previous courses, libraries, local recreation areas, playgrounds, social institutions, volunteer agencies and integration offices are visited for spatial and institutional orientation. To this end, the Kunstkarussell uses a network of long-standing cooperation partners.
On the special dates on the weekends, the focus is also on community social activities, to which older siblings and other family members are also invited. This can be done, for example. a visit to the Harzburg Chestnut Festival or the Christmas market of Lebenshilfe or a day trip to Rammelsberg as well as a self-organized farm festival.
! Respect – With play, fun and exercise to respectful coexistence
Project partners: Primary School Lessingstraße, Helmstedt
A project day took place at the Lessingstraße elementary school, on which students in grades 3 and 4 learned to solve conflict situations themselves and to develop self-confidence and self-efficacy in order to be able to deal with each other respectfully (and non-violently).
Respectful cooperation is an important basis for school coexistence. The non-profit association ! Respect has been involved in social-emotional learning projects in primary schools since 2016. The aim is to support children at an early stage in treating each other with appreciation and overcoming conflicts constructively. With its prevention measure ! SocialSkills promotes! Respect e.V. specifically promotes social-emotional skills of primary school children, including in particular their ability to cooperate and communicate.
The ! SocialSkills participating children learn how to perceive their own boundaries and represent them respectfully and how clear, situation-appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication helps to be taken seriously in conflicts. In different group constellations, they solve tasks together and reflect on their behavior. In this way, the primary school pupils learn how they can initially resolve conflicts independently and non-violently and when it makes sense to call in support. Through these experiences, the social training courses strengthen the children's self-confidence and self-efficacy in the long term.
In addition to the children, all teachers and pedagogical staff of project schools are also the target group of the ! Respect measures. As part of further training and observations at the children's training sessions, they learn how social-emotional learning can be established in everyday school life with a lot of play, fun and movement. Parents/guardians are also informed and supported at information evenings.
