Join Picker Pals and Empower Our Youngest Environmental Leaders.
As schools prepare for the new academic year this September, VOICE Ireland’s environmental programme for young children is back too. The Picker Pals are looking forward to another great year of empowering children to become environmental champions!
How Does Picker Pals Work?
Picker Pals is a free, school-based environmental initiative that puts young children in charge of litter-picks with their families. Every class gets one of our special "Picker Packs" to share, which is sent home with a different child week after week. By waiting their turn, each child gets to hear their classmates report back, so the conversation about litter in the community becomes very normalised in the classroom and the children develop a sense of shared responsibility for their local area. We also send an environmental lesson every month that we teach live on the classroom whiteboards by Zoom!
Today's children are growing up in a world where environmental and climate-related challenges are only getting bigger. Our main objective at VOICE Ireland is to turn environmental care into something the children feel passionate about because they have been empowered when they were young. Litter-picking is exciting for them and is challenging enough while still being within their ability. For many young children, taking charge of the Picker Pack is the first time they are given a genuine responsibility, and getting to be the boss with their families creates a sense of pride and a lasting memory.
As the real influencers, they bring a unique energy into the household and become great advocates for better environmental behaviour. Crucially, we want to remind schools that even if they participated once, it does not mean they cannot register again. A lot of schools get the pack once and think they cannot come back again, which means they miss out on renewing their equipment and taking part in our lessons and competitions the following year. We improve the programme every single year, and we would like schools to re-register every year if they can.
Registration can be done anytime HERE
