Part of More · Intentional collaborations
We facilitateimpactful partnerships
We help organisations find where they can make the greatest social impact, and who to make it with. Together we facilitate collaborations that bring social innovation to life, strengthen human rights, and create more child-friendly societies.
Case · Children’s rights, play & circular consumption
Retoy: playing our way to a better world, together
Retoy started with a simple idea: that children can play their way to a better world. It grew into a movement because children, companies, UNICEF and municipalities joined in, each bringing what they do best.
In collaboration with
- Our role
- Founder: concept, partnerships, growth
- Reach
- More than half a million children, 2011–2017
- Incubator partner
- Reach for Change
- Main partners
- UNICEF, Blocket and several municipalities
Watch the film
Built with children, not for them
Retoy was co-created with an advisory board of children. Children took part through toy swaps, Retoy Labs and non-toxic play areas. In the Retoy Labs they repaired toys, invented toys that made the world better, and gave their input on how parks, neighbourhoods and whole cities could become safer and more playful. Together with our advisory board of children, we also created a game and a play area at Tekniska museet. The swapped toys saved the world over 300 tonnes of CO2 emissions compared to buying new toys.
How it grew
Retoy was incubated by Kinnevik’s Reach for Change, which brought capital and coaching. Our main partners were UNICEF and Blocket, and together with them and the municipalities we worked with, we reached families across Sweden. Other partners included Stockholm City Library, Malmö Stad, Göteborgs Stad, Tekniska museet, the property company Fabege, Scandic Hotels and many more.
Hjärta Ge
In 2015, we initiated Hjärta Ge together with UNICEF, Rädda Barnen, Clowns Without Borders and preschools, financed by Schibsted/Blocket. Children collected toys and gave them away, each with a greeting, to children who had newly arrived in Sweden. Together with UNICEF, Rädda Barnen and Clowns Without Borders, we held joint trainings on working with newly arrived children and coordinated our activities for children. With these partners we ran activities for children in refugee accommodation, and invited them to regular Retoy activities to play together with other children.
Beyond Sweden
Retoy primarily operated in Sweden, but also co-created pop-up activities in collaboration with the Swedish Institute and embassies in the US, China and Macedonia. In Macedonia, we also ran pop-up activities at child-friendly spaces in refugee camps, together with Save the Children and the Swedish Embassy in Skopje. In 2016, Retoy was selected by the Swedish Institute for a toolkit on circularity and children’s rights used by Swedish embassies worldwide.
What the partners made possible
With UNICEF and pedagogues, Retoy created teaching material for preschools, educators and parents, weaving together children’s rights, creativity, play and circularity, much loved among preschool teachers. The Retoy method was met with overwhelming enthusiasm and curiosity from both children and adults, eager to play their way to a better world by practising circularity in a way that empowers children’s rights.
Watch the film