"Strategic partnership project ""Changing the game: developing Culture of Peace in organizations"" is aiming is to build the capacity of the 5 project partner organizations from Latvia, Poland, Netherland, United Kingdom and Greece and their 15 associate partners, active in non-formal education, in three levels of a Culture of Peace during the 24 months of the project. This would be done through creating an innovative non-formal education methodology (consisting of interactive Game and Manual for Educators) that can be used to develop practical peacebuilding skills inside organizations.Objectives of the projects are:1) To develop and extend professional and personal skills to contribute to the Culture of Peace of 10-15 staff members of the 5 partner organizations, and between 30-45 people from 15 associate partners of non governmental organizations and activists movements;2) To develop an innovative educational methodology based on interactive game comprising 3 modules of CoP, distributed in physical form and via project website through partner organizations, reaching around 800-1000 people of the target groups.We expecting to reach such results:A) 10-15 educators/trainers/educational leaders and support staff belonging to partner organizations will take part in two Joint Staff Training events (C1 and C2) aiming to share best practices and conceptual background and educational methodology related to the Culture of Peace and game design;B) Another 30 educators/trainers/educational leaders and support staff will take part in the Blended Learning Mobility event (C3), based on our developed CoP game (IO1) and Manual for Educators (IO2). Within the course of the project, they will transfer the knowledge and learning to their organizations & communities, directly reaching up to 30-60 additional people from our target group.C) An educational CoP game (IO1) and Manual for Educators (IO2) will be created in English with essential parts translated in languages of all partner organizations (Latvian, Dutch, Polish and Greek). D) During 10 multiplier events (E1-E10)- 150 people in 5 countries will be reached and introduced to the outcomes of the Joint Staff Trainings and will be involved in testing the game. This will include 30-60 people from 15 associate partners of nongovernmental organizations and activists movements. E) Through online communication channels (project website, partner organizations' websites, newsletter, FB pages) - up to an additional of 800-1000 people of the target groups will be reached.Impact of our project will be visible on many levels, i.e.: 1.The trainings will have a direct impact on 10-15 educators/trainers/educational leaders and support staff belonging to partner organizations by developing their competence, meaning knowledge, skills and attitudes, in the fields of the Culture of Peace (C1) and game design (C2), raising their capacity to work on these topics, to implement new programs and generally improve their level of cooperation within the organization. 2. The competence developed in the field of Peace Education will create a change in the communication inside of the partner organizations and their associated partners, improving their ability to deal with conflict nonviolently, and finding solutions that include the needs and feelings of all involved parties. It will also raise the ability and motivation of the organizations to strategize and address conflicts nonviolently, prevent violence and create more inclusive and just social structures and behaviors.3. The educational game (IO1) and Manual for Educators (IO2) will help the educators/trainers/educational leaders who work with the partner organizations as well as their associated partners to start transformation process inside their organization towards Culture of Peace and will provide a tool that allows to begin this transformation in effective way.The expected impact refers to 3 levels of competence that we connect to the Culture of Peace:* The personal: maintaining inner peace by emotional self-awareness, self-regulation or resilience and self-expression;*The interpersonal: maintaining peaceful relations by peaceful conflict resolution, dialogue facilitation, empathy and mutual understanding;The social/global: mainstreaming a CoP by developing cooperation and strategizing competences for any of the eight elements of a Culture of Peace.4. Mainstreaming the Culture of Peace to 114 participants of the final Multiplier events and estimated 800 people reached with the online dissemination activities by providing innovative and engaging tools (O1, O2) to approach the concept in a playful and accessible way and to develop the essential competence needed to cultivate the CoP in our society. Project will indirectly increase the quality of peace related projects of civil society organizations and the quality of adult education through developing tools which address actual social and global issues."

"<< Background >>This project has its background in the trends provided by the figures provided by the UNHCR, that although the total number of migrants arriving in Europe peaked in October 2015 when approximately 222,500 refugees and migrants arrived in one month, of which most by far (211,700) landed in Greece, coming from Turkey, this flow of migration from the Middle Eastern and North African countries will continue, and most likely to be exuberated by the recent shocks of the Covid19 global pandemic. And of course, this comes with many social-cultural challenges to the European community, especially the young populations, educators, and the job market sector that need to understand, interact, welcome, and support in the settling of the newcomers.In light of these, we cannot just close our eyes and hope that the troubles and related processes will sort themselves out. We need to strategically act. Our answer in this project is to share various several practices on how we can do this by innovating an award-winning board game into a more agile, easy to multiply, close to realistic presentation of refugee journeys into an Augmented reality version (AR). This is aimed at bringing the dialogue about refugees and migration to each and every Europen's close experience as long as they have access to a screen. Thus, this project is one of the contributions to a more culturally aware, diverse, and integrated part of the world.The project is a consortium of four organizations from diverse regions of the European Union including Denmark and Sweden from the North point, and Greece, and Turkey from the South. The organizations representing the countries include:• Civil Connections Community Foundation (CCCF) of Denmark – applicant• Impact Unified AB of Sweden• Participation Design Agency of Sweden• System and Generation Association of Turkey• AddArt of Greece<< Objectives >>The project seeks to promote European values and intercultural dialogue to build common histories in the face of immigration into the European Union and new forms of interaction over the past and many years to come. The project’s fundamental value is its aim to innovatively do this through enhancing digital skills, new technologies learning and utilization, critical thinking, and media literacy, but also help to build a virtual cultural heritage museum in order to provide an available repository of cultural knowledge. We want to widen people's knowledge and knowledge sources through developing a repository of usable, expandable, easily multipliable, socially, and technologically innovative, publically available products.The project concretely aims at giving possibilities to European partners to develop innovative ideas - here in the form of an AR migration game and related supportive components, that among others contributes to:• The strengthening of cross-cutting cooperation around the ideas of European citizenship, and tincture cultural awareness for citizens – in a creative and innovative way.• To engage different actors – organizations, education institutions, policy-circles, etc. to gain the skills and replicable platforms and knowledge/tools repositories to empower current and future generations to be culturally aware, successful innovators in their local communities.• To provide skills, technologies, and competencies to young people as well as adults to creatively come up with innovative solutions to societal challenges• To create cultural, intercultural, multicultural awareness among participants by leading them into the essence of other cultures and letting them be better acquainted with their cultural heritage and ultimately to promote intercultural citizenship.• To discover and appreciate cultural diversity, to enrich our lives in order to prevent humanity’s cultural heritage from being destroyed and forgotten.In addition, the project has the ambition to contribute to.1. The strengthening of cross-cutting cooperation around the ideas of European citizenship, and tincture cultural awareness for citizens – in a creative and innovative way.2. To engage different actors – organizations, education institutions, policy-circles, etc. to gain the skills and replicable platforms and knowledge/tools repositories to empower current and future generations to be culturally aware, successful innovators in their local communities.3. To provide skills, technologies, and competencies to young people as well as adults to creatively come up with innovative solutions to societal challenges4. To create cultural, intercultural, multicultural awareness among participants by leading them into the essence of other cultures and letting them be better acquainted with the cultural heritage and ultimately to promote intercultural citizenship.5. To discover and appreciate cultural diversity, to enrich our lives in order to prevent humanity’s cultural heritage from being destroyed and forgotten.6. To encourage young people to explore their own diverse cultural heritage in the wider European context in order to promote intercultural dialogue. In this way, we seek to deepen the vision and experience of the past, present, and future.7. To reinforce young people's sense of belonging to a common European family by underlining shared values and a common history. We seek to promote cultural and multicultural sensitivity and to develop social and civic interactive skills and critical thinking.8.To inspire young people to understand, celebrate and protect their unique culture as well as letting them discover and appreciate the uniqueness and importance of cultures of others. Thereby they will be enabled to discover the unity in diversity - the gist of European culture. In this way, young people will be equipped with an aptitude to comprehend, tolerate, and appreciate the traits of other cultures. And many others.<< Implementation >>Briefly summarized, the project will produce the following products:• Result/output 1 - ""The Journey ISTANBUL game"" - AR-version Creation• Result/output 2 - Virtual Cultural Heritage Museum (VCHM) on stories of refugee migration and life in Europe• Result/output 3 - Live Action Role Playing (LARP) game for immersion into migration journeys and cultural experiences• Result/output 4 - Stories of surviving refugees - in a comic book of superheroes!To achieve these, the project will run several different implementations/activities including:Transnational project meetings:- Inter-partner Project Management Meeting (IPM) 1 in Turkey- Inter-partner Project Management Meeting (IPM) 2 in Sweden- Inter-partner Project Management Meeting (IPM) 3 in Greece- Inter-partner Project Management Meeting (IPM) 4 in DenmarkAnd,Multiplier events:• E1 Community mobilization towards the adoption of ""The Journey"" - AR game, VCHM, Comic Book, and real-time role-play of the LARP – Denmark• E2 Community mobilization towards the adoption of ""The Journey"" - AR game, VCHM, Comic Book, and real-time role-play of the LARP – Sweden• E3 Community mobilization towards the adoption of ""The Journey"" - AR game, VCHM, Comic Book, and real-time role-play of the LARP – Turkey• E4 Community mobilization towards the adoption of ""The Journey"" - AR game, VCHM, Comic Book, and real-time role-play of the LARP – Greece<< Results >>The project results will include the following:1. Innovating the board game “The Journey: Istanbul” into or to the level of Augmented Reality (AR).The board game ""The Journey: Istanbul"" has been already introduced, publicized, and played in over 20 countries and achieved great success. System & Generation included the game in their regular activities such as English Conversation Clubs to contribute to awareness-raising efforts. The game was also included as an activity by many youth exchanges in Bulgaria- Bansko, Plovdiv, and Sofia; Turkey – Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Corum; Georgia – Tbilisi; UK – London; Sweden – Simrishamn, Göteborg. The game has been played by about 1,000 youngsters so far and reached around 5,000 indirect beneficiaries. The AR version of the board game will make the gaming experience more realistic and effective.2. Create a Live Action Role Playing (LARP) game titled ‘What Now?’, based on locations in Greece to make the participants feel like ""walking in the shoes of a refugee"" or trying to find a way out of there. This will be followed by game rules that will make it applicable in any European country.Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP) game entails the quest - ‘What Now?’ It is a Live Action Role Playing game where participants take part in a simulated game where they play as refugees who have successfully navigated a long and treacherous path, the participants have finally arrived in Greece, where they are now staying in relative safety in an improvised camp on one of the islands and there is no time to rest.Each participant has a decision to make. Should they continue north from Greece on foot towards Germany and apply for asylum as they get there? Etc. Live-Action Role-Playing takes on the refugee topic will be highly effective. It puts the participants in the shoes of actual refugees and forces them to make decisions refugees must make.3. Set up an open-access web- and app-based platform hosting Virtual Cultural Heritage Museum (VCHM) which will serve as an online digital platform to make all the above products available, as well as collect other videos of various migrant stories. These videos will include stories about the life of refugees - as well as well-established and well-known figures of migratory background - and what values these people have brought with them. Creating and developing the Virtual Cultural Heritage Museum will allow us to further raise awareness about migration and common cultural heritage, and reach even a larger number of people all around the world, as the platform will be available worldwide in several languages (English, Turkish, Greek). The Virtual Cultural Heritage Museum (VCHM) will provide an online digital platform for people of different nationalities and cultures to share their own values and cultural heritage as well as encountering those of others. Linking up with other similar virtual archives including at Global, EU-, national and regional level will give further traction to the project and reach wider user communities.4. Publish a comic book with the stories of surviving refugees told by the fisherman role-model Kostas Pinteris.Kostas Pinteris, a fisherman on the Greek island Lesbos, has been rescuing refugees from drowning in the Aegean Sea for many years and has become a local hero and been nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Pinteris is among the closest eyewitnesses to what Syrian refugees have suffered in their efforts to reach Greece. He has collected a large volume of memories and stories about refugees and the re-telling of his stories about refugees in Greek amphitheaters will help refugees’ voices to be heard and their stories to be passed on to future generations."

ContextIn training and educational contexts it happens often that well intentioned people reinforce narratives that are oppressive for certain groups. This sometimes leads to tension and distancing where we would like to use those moments as an opportunity for critical self reflection and connection. Taxonomically speaking, knowledge is relatively easy to gain, skills can be obtained in a short time, but reflection on ethical values and attitudes need more time and effort. Reflection is vital in our work on human rights and inclusion so we need effective tools for that. Creativity and arts are a tool capable of such change.In times where divisions between people are growing stronger and wider, and a need arises to deal with differences of values and beliefs in a way that is connecting instead of dividing. Reflective practices and critical thinking are needed to improve our practices and foster personal growth. Especially in times where COVID-19 has a huge impact on our daily life, time spent online is rising, with questions emerging about the effects of this on our (social) lifes and growing segregation. Digital environments call for and provide opportunities for innovative ways of implementing reflective practices and critical thinking. This project aims at developing critical self-reflection on behaviours and attitudes, to be able to accept vulnerability and move beyond hostile, defensive and aggressive reaction patterns toward inclusive attitudes and open-minded behaviours.Aim More inclusive youth work and educational settings by promoting attitudinal and behavioural change that leads to a more equal and safe environment for all youth.ObjectivesCreating space for differences in experience and worldview, in constructive discussions that foster empathy;opportunities for self-reflection and personal development.;foster critical thinking and open-mindedness in society;improve the digital competences in youth work;promote creativity and resilience in learning spaces;use art as a way to express and reflect;focus on our values and attitudes when dealing with competences.MethodsWe will use desk research to identify and analyse already existing games for the resources in the toolkit.For the digital game we will use creative collaborative methods as well as interdisciplinary tools to create an integrative game. The creative process will be based on the structure of design thinking: content creation and programming, testing and developing, reflecting.Creativity and (participatory) arts as a method of critical reflection beyond the theoretical realm.Activities3 transnational meetings with to the core team and technical support;1 training event for participant from associated partners to test the products;several local activities where the products will be implemented;events for dissemination and visibility;follow-up phase to assess the impact and continue dissemination. ResultsA digital game that will be disseminated alongside a toolkit with additional resources, background of the game, how to work with it, and implementation for work on diversity and inclusion. Both these outputs will be digitally available on already existing platforms, such as the websites of the project partners.ImpactThe impact of the project will be a start of a behavioural and attitudinal change. These kinds of changes are not reached overnight, though. So the primary impact will be an enhanced awareness amongst participants of their own learning opportunities regarding fragilities, power structures, and the like. They will gain insight in the ways in which to question one’s own reactions and will gain observational skills to be able to postpone reactions and thus change their own behavioural patterns. Long-term benefitsPlayers of the game will have the tools to explore their own position in an intersectional working field long after the end of this project. They can revisit the game any time they want and work at further personal development.The secondary impact will be that participants working with youth or in education will change their attitudes and behaviours over time, in a way that benefits the people they work with and creates a more inclusive context.

Context Youth plays an important role in the multifaceted challenges that global food systems face. Most of the education currently offered has little room for interdisciplinarity and soft skills, and focuses on knowledge-based single disciplines. The educational system of the high schools should be increasingly complemented with non-formal approaches as experiential-based teaching and learning. This kind of knowledge can be key to give youth the necessary skills to handle the complexity of the food system. ObjectivesThe main objective of the project is to increase the environmental awareness and ecological literacy of the youth by introducing them to the knowledge of agroecology as a holistic science which provides solutions for sustainable environment and sustainable food production. The aim of the project is to support cooperation between CSOs in order to develop and implement informal and innovative educational materials and methods about agroecology. ParticipantsMain target groups of this project are secondary school students from age of 13 to18 years old and educators in the non-formal and informal learning sector.Activities methodology and resultsIn order to achieve the objectives, we aim to produce an innovative educational program in agroecology for youth learners supported by new educational materials, such as a comic book and a game board, which can be used to complement the formal high school educational curriculum. These are O1 - Trainer’s Digital Platform: The educational program will provide different ways and tools to include youth through active learning, in order to obtain valuable knowledge, skills and positive attitudes about the environment, climate change and sustainable food production and O2, Creative Tools for Agroecology: The final result will be a collaborative board game, a comic book, and a set of creative activities for youth learners. The materials will be printed both in English and in the languages of the partners. The process of elaborating these IOs involves direct participation of the target group of the project by means of a vast number of multiplication and learning activities that are tightly connected with the IOs. The multiplier events are designed as special moments offering opportunities to share, test and disseminate the main results of the IOs. These activities will also result in an enhanced dialogue and exchange between learners and between youth educators. There will be 2 types of multiplier events: the first cluster of MEs (E1-10) will target youth learners and will be focused on the creation of innovative tools for agroecology and test the methodology proposed in IO1. The last ME will target trainers and youth educators and will be a dissemination and local training event for trainers. All MEs will be organised in 5 partner countries. The transnational training activities are conceived as an international training tour with 3 stops. Participants of these activities will be trainers/volunteer trainers of partner organisations, and will meet to learn, share and exchange knowledge and practices. The result will be a strong international pool of educators in the field of agroecology for youth, and an increase in knowledge and skills.ImpactThe project foresees the most important impact on three levels1. Impact on youth learners and multipliers (educators) will be in providing them with innovative methods, tools and hands-on experiences which could be successfully utilised for the long-term development of the non-formal learning course beyond this project. They will improve skills for analysis of contexts and challenges in farming, with specific emphasis on agroecology.2. Impact on partner organisations is mainly seen in impact on staff who will gain knowledge and skills on non-formal innovative educational methods in the field of youth education, improving their abilities in educational activities and broadening their international cooperation in the issue of youth education. Staff members will develop their capacities through implementation of high-quality activities for young people in line with EU objectives.3. Impact on allies, experts, decision-makers and broader audiences will provide this group with understanding the importance to learn about farming via hands-on methods and different aspects of the agroecological systems is a very important step for their acceptance and support, to demonstrate their impact and long-term sustainability. Potential longer benefitsThe program will be designed and disseminated with the purpose to make the adaptations possible, so allies of the partner organisations will gain and learn from a well-built youth educational program which refers directly to the needs of other initiatives in different European countries. Thanks to the collaboration of the partner organisations with other educational institutions, we expect to inspire and foster implementation of the agroecological topic in their curricula.

In the world of youth education, the opportunities deriving from the digital world are many, also the European Commission encourages the use of highly innovative tools in training and activities to be carried out with young people. Likewise, contemporary societies of the most economically advanced countries seem to invest more attention in the learning processes driven by the complexity of everyday life, new technologies and above all transformations of society that mark everyone's life-long learning process. This expression denotes the need to foresee educational and training paths throughout one's life, which deviate from the canonical formal examples of education, providing more attractive and effective educational tools, in order to guarantee an educational approach that leads to social inclusion of those who live in situations of fewer opportunities, specifically in conditions of disability. Spread the Game wants to analyze good practices, methods, digital and non-digital tools and examples that can be used by non-profit organizations, educators and youth workers making their work and partnership network more engaging and effective, especially in relation to the involvement of young people with physical or mental challenges. The project aims to provide educators, operators, and teachers with tools in order to apply and use best practices, free digital resources available on the Internet that are identified and analyzed in daily activities with youngsters experiencing physical or mental challenges. The exchange of good practices offers the possibility to explore and investigate innovative teaching methods, useful for the promotion of an active - inclusive and collaborative methodology. Although approaches and methodologies for the success of young people with disabilities or special educational needs are more taken into consideration in areas of formal education (school), traditional non-formal education systems do not fully satisfy the involvement of young people, especially the young with disabilities, revealing a worrying disparity between the current forms of involvement and learning. The methodologies incorporating digital and game design, such as the Gamification technique and / or Digital Storytelling, incorporate an element of innovation and proved to be extremely valid for enhancing transversal learning and able to maintain the attention of learners by increasing the acquisition of skills. It is crucial to encourage operators and educators to open up new ways of using non-formal tools that incorporate technology. The target group of the project is the operators, educators, and staff of the organizations that work in close contact with the young people with disabilities and not, and the disabled youngsters (specifically the bearers of physical disability). The project includes three training activities involving forty-eight staff members, educators, youth workers and operators. During these trainings the participants will learn the method of Gamification, of Digital Storytelling and will be able to create a plan of activities for young people with fewer opportunities. They will analyze the best practices selected in the partner countries and will understand the potential for application in local contexts, promoting positive examples and increasing staff skills. In addition, the forth training will be a time of high-quality training for youth workers who will receive feedback from all participants, and an exchange, enrichment and mobility experience for eight disabled youngsters. At the end of the project, a booklet containing the analysis of the selected good practices and a tool- kit containing the guidelines for the development of an educational activity plan will be produced. The booklet and the toolkit will be promoted through dedicated web channels, conferences involving the interested parties, schools, municipality, and relevant bodies. In this way, we aim to reach a wide audience and spread new useful tools for their daily work. On the basis of the technological evolution that has affected our society, we believe that the dissemination and learning of good practices regarding social inclusion through gamification could be crucial.