Step21 - Initiative for Tolerance and Responsibility
The non-profit initiative “ step21 - Initiative for Tolerance and Responsibility. Youth demands! “Has been working with children and young people in media educational projects since 1998 . The initiative was founded by Sonja Lahnstein-Kandel in Hamburg . The patron of step21 has been the incumbent Federal President since it was founded .
Emergence
The idea to found step21 was born in 1993 as a reaction to the xenophobic attacks in Mölln and Solingen . It took another five years to find supporters and financiers to found step21 with the shareholders Bertelsmann , DaimlerChrysler , Siemens and BBDO Germany . These companies accompanied and supported step21 in the first few years until a comprehensive network of sponsors and cooperation partners could be established. Today the initiative is financed exclusively through donations and pro bono contributions in kind. It is supported by the STEP 21 foundation.
aims
step21 has set itself the goal of strengthening the social and media skills of young people. Various media projects are intended to convey basic values such as tolerance , responsibility and moral courage on the one hand, and to prepare adolescents for future challenges on the job market on the other . The project work is intended to help train young people to use the media safely and critically. In addition, media work promotes young people's cognitive abilities, their creativity as well as communication and teamwork skills .
activities
The various projects, competitions and campaigns are intended to encourage young people to become active themselves. In the first 10 years, the initiative carried out more than 300 regional, national and international projects. For example, the “ Weiße Flecken” newspapers were created, which fill journalistic gaps from the Nazi era, a code of behavior on the Internet, international youth congresses, radio broadcasts on the subject of pressure to perform, short stories and poems about the life of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger , media boxes for various age groups as well as video documentations about life in deprived areas. In 2004 Sonja Lahnstein-Kandel received the Federal Cross of Merit with ribbon for her commitment to step21 . In his speech on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism on January 27, 2009, Federal President Horst Köhler paid tribute to the activities of the step21 initiative by name.