Let's picnic!
Bei den bundesweit angebotenen Caritas-Picknicks begegnen sich Familien und Menschen aus der Nachbarschaft. Sie teilen Zeit, Spaß und neue Ideen miteinander - vielleicht auch über den Tag hinaus.© Vasiliy Koval - Fotolia.com
In September/October 2013, a nation-wide picnic campaign run by German Caritas went very well, measured by the number of more than 300 participating places and the warm, in parts even enthusiastic, response by the local organizers and picnic guests. Of course, a lot of the success depended on good weather which we were lucky with in most places.
This "Picnic for families and neighbours” meant to gather local people in a low-threshold way. Sharing meals and some come-together infotainment, they started talking about family policy matters and the need for solidarity as well as local networking opportunities, one-to-one support ideas or potential improvements in their communal environment.
Building new networks between local Caritas institutions, parishes, Christian or communal kindergartens and many other partners functioned well already while preparing one of the huge picnics for dozens or maybe hundreds of visitors of all ages. Some of these networks said they intended to go on in their cooperation for similar events in the future.
So it turned out that a picnic is a very good door-opener for strengthening neighbourhood and community organization. Based on the archetypical approach of "eat and talk”, the invitation to a picnic can reach people from any cultural and national backgrounds and make them open up themselves for discussing social and justice topics.
The local organizers were provided by our Bureau with campaigning material and an instruction manual which they could easily translate into their local settings.
If you like to take a glance at the jolly picnic atmosphere, look at the picture gallery: www.caritas.de/picknick
Contact:
Klemens Bögner
Initiative für Solidarität und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt
Deutscher Caritasverband e. V.
E-Mail: initiative@caritas.de