School Resources

The Crisis Response Toolkit has been designed to enable those working with children and young people to support children and young people in response to distressing and traumatizing events in the world around them.

Crises caused by climate related catastrophes or conflicts and violence are exposing us all to images, stories, and social media content that can cause anxiety, trauma, and distress – this exposure can be especially traumatising and difficult for children and young people. 

If children and young people you work with are particularly distressed by current events we hope that the Crisis Response Toolkit will help you and them to process and share feelings, to reflect, and to explore ways in which you could respond together. 

See our 3 step guide to supporting children and young people to explore complex emotional responses to distressing stories and images in the world around them. 

Step 1: Exploring your feelings: Blob Tree Resources 

We have two resources Climate Feelings and Conflict Feelings that have been designed and written to facilitate children and young people (and the adults who work with them) to reflect on their feelings around big issues. The Blob Tree resources enable open questions that allow children and young people to identify how they feel and to articulate it in comfortable ways. The resources are varied and open and facilitate children and young people to express a wide range of feelings in response. 

Conflict Feelings provides a broad range of images that specifically relate to themes and imagery associated with violence and conflict. 

Climate Feelings provides a broad range of images that specifically relate to themes and imagery associated with the impacts of climate change and eco-anxiety. 

We recognise that one of the challenges facing children and young people can be feelings of powerlessness and/or hopelessness. Taking tangible and meaningful actions, no matter how big or small, can be a vital antidote that provide a sense of agency and hope in the face of challenging global crises.

Fundraising – in a crisis context often the most important thing we can do to respond is to give money to a reputable organisation that is working on the ground with affected communities. These organisations are well placed to respond quickly and work alongside affected communities to meet the most urgent material needs in the immediate aftermath of a crisis happening. What many of these organisations need in order to do this is money.

Keep learning – if your pupils and/or wider community have been particularly moved or affected by something happening in the world, one thing that you can do is to keep learning about it. We live in a fast-paced world and are often moving on to the ‘next thing’ quickly. Making sure to revisit issues/events is an important part of supporting pupils to develop their global citizenship and global learning. When we move on and don’t revisit topics, we can run the risk of only ever acknowledging the crisis at its worst, but there can be encouraging stories of resilience and recovery when we keep our attention on the issue for longer. 

Use your voice – many of the crises that we see could be avoided if different political choices had been made. As you keep learning about the climate crisis, poverty, and issues of conflict and violence, you will begin to identify some of the root causes. A vital way that we can support children and young people to respond to a complex and sometimes distressing world, is to help them to nurture their voice. Engaging with elected representatives (MPs/Ministers etc.) can be a really important part of responding to crises and playing a role in stopping future crises before they happen through better politics and decisions at a national and global level.

For some ideas and guidance about taking action with pupils please look at Beyond the Bake Sale, our guide to effective and meaningful courageous advocacy and fundraising.