Forming neighbourhood care groups

Adopt-a-Planet is a project of The Council for Posterity, itself an initiative of the Institute for Social Innovations, London (UK). It involves encouraging a class in a school to adopt, on a permanent basis, a derelict or vandalized piece of land in the vicinity of the school. The idea behind Adopt-a-Planet is that the appropriate time to inculcate feelings of caretaking for home neighbourhoods is pre-puberty. If it is possible to give young people a feeling that they can have a creative and positive effect on their local environment, they are less likely to go around smashing things up post-puberty, once under the influence of their hormones and the gang spirit. Indeed one of the recent prize-winners had their renovated area destroyed by older children. They renovated it anew but this time took the precaution of touring the secondary schools with a presentation about their project, telling how they were caretaking their particular spot and had become very attached to it.