Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement

Objectives:

• To introduce the idea of “serial reciprocity/passing it on” to children
• To practice “passing it on” among the participants
  

Activity Theme:

“I’m not a hero,” she said, “ It was my turn to help, that’s all.”

~ Tashira in the story, “Tashira’s Turn”, The Children’s Book of Heroes

One of the important components that the philanthropy training is introducing to young people is the concept of “serial reciprocity.” The definition used by the authors is “Philanthropic acts that encourage more philanthropic acts.” To adapt this for younger children, the definition could read, “Caring acts that encourage more caring acts.” Story and action in this session introduce this concept.

Activity:

The facilitator reads the story, “It’s My Turn Now” to the partici¬pants. If “The Children’s Book of Heroes” is used, show the wonderful illustrations by Michael Hague. After the story, the facilitator asks the young people to reflect on the story. To do this, he/she asks some leading questions:

1. Why do you think the story was named “It’s My Turn Now”?
2. Who was the first person to decide it was “her turn to help”?
3. Second person? Third person? Fourth person?
4. How did their caring acts encourage more caring acts?
5. What might the someone, who observed the kids writing “It’s your turn to save the environment” on the barrel, do when it’s his/her turn to help?
6. Think up another ending to the story.

The facilitator explains that a philanthropist does caring acts that, in turn cause others to do caring acts. The facilitator asks the youth to think of a time someone did a caring act either for them or to them. Didn’t they want to return the kindness? That’s what serial reciprocity means.

To illustrate this, the facilitator tells the group that they are going to play the “It’s My Turn” game. The participants are divided into groups of three and each is given a part of the story to role-play for the other groups. Group One begins, is then joined by Group Two and then Group Three.

When the story is finished, ask: “AND, WHAT DID HE DO?”

Have the participants think of actions he could take during his turn.

Application:

The children might want to ask the Executive Director of the organization, school, or faith-based institution where the training is taking place, if they can perform their story for the younger children. They might plan a special session for their families to attend and perform the story. Afterwards, they can begin to think about the caring acts that were done and how these acts encourage more caring acts.

Young people can take home the “story” and share it with their family and friends.