Guide on how museums can support school and youth strikes

 Three children are engaging with a museum display, by turning a steering wheel. In the background is a tractor.

Children and young people might need support in making sense of and responding to the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Museums can play an important role in supporting young people to learn, discuss and debate the issues surrounding it and to get involved with social action to achieve long-term change. Learn how to in a guide by Kids in Museums.

Fridays for Future has set the tone for the new decade and museums are excellent key players for climate change awareness activities. The Museums for Future initiative has listed 10 hands on activities for museums to assist the movement and action two suggests holding a children’s assembly about a sustainable future. Young people’s activism on these issues has the potential to be very effective in helping them feel empowered in the face of a global problem, increase their sense of wellbeing, and deliver messages about the need for action to adults.

There are different ways to support young people, some suggestions could be:

  • Holding a Children's Assembly about sustainable futures or how culture can support climate action
  • Hosting a regular Friday teach-in so that strikers can still educate themselves and others 
  • Inviting young people to create an archive or growing display about the strikes & other youth environmental activism movements
  • Highlighting stories of young activists from the past or from all round the world, to show that however extraordinary Greta is, she's not alone. 

Learn more in the guide “How can your museum support children and young people to understand and respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency?