Joachim und Anita Stapel Stiftung "Denken – Lernen – Verstehen"

The Joachim and Anita Stapel Foundation is a legally independent, non-profit foundation under civil law with the motto "Thinking – Learning – Understanding." It promotes the introduction of children and adolescents to communication forms created through language and supports corresponding educational projects and events. A focus lies on cooperation with the GRIPS Theater and the funding of GRIPS theater classes at Berlin primary schools. Linguistic expression and comprehension skills as well as social learning are specifically strengthened through speaking, listening, reading, writing, and theatrical performance.

The Stapel Foundation is committed to ensuring that children and young people gain access to culture and communication through the diverse forms of language – speaking, listening, storytelling, reading, writing, and theatrical performance. Language should be experienced not only as a means of learning but as an emotionally moving experience. Through funding and pilot projects, the foundation aims to create sustainable programs that promote language competence, self-confidence, and social participation among young people.

The primary beneficiaries are children and adolescents attending elementary schools in Berlin, particularly those from socially and economically disadvantaged districts. The programs target school classes as well as individual schools that wish to further develop their linguistic and social skills through participation in theater projects, reading and writing initiatives, as well as discussion and reading events. The projects are designed to be long-term and can support students from elementary school through the end of lower secondary education.