Borderline Boardgames is a project that has the main purpose of overcome the needs of a practical and enjoyable way of education in economical literacy, due the economical crisis that europe is passing, and the resolution of conflicts (that also occur due to difficulties that youngsters face). The tension is rising in the youngsters (especially the ones with less opportunities) and the inherent difficulties that youth organisations, youth workers, educators and trainers face in dealing with this. These subjects were considered priority by the partners and the idea of creating and developing boardgames that could help and provide a practical tool of education on these matters, raised leading to the creation of this project. The main objectives are: - create and develop pedagogical tools around the topics of financial literacy and around conflict resolution. Both pedagogical tools aim to be tailored specifically for young people with fewer opportunities. These pedagogical tools need to have following characteristics: durable, attractive and inviting, easy adaptable to specific characteristics of the target group, multi-purpose use. - provide tools for organizations to develop in the youth field and education - create 10 exemplars of the pedagogical tools for each partner, in order to use this in their local established networks. These networks include youth associations, schools, informal groups and local authorities. - train the organizations staff to be able to develop and implement the pedagogical exercises at local, national and international level, in order to guarantee quality use of the tools in perspective of a most effective and efficient implementation of both. - dissemination of both tools in order to promote also further recognition of non formal education, as complementary to formal education. - create an opportunity for employment for people that will manually produce the materials for both pedagogical tools - contribute to an increased employability for the groups targeted. During the project we will have 20 people at full time working on the development of the objectives and outputs, , being half staff from youth organisations and other half youngsters with fewer opportunities. Indirectly we count with around 100 other youngsters and staff that will cooperate and bennefit with this project. The methodology will be primarily the non-formal education, especially due to the fact that tools in this area will be created and developed. It will happen 3 transnational meetings, local activities, open conference for presentation of the outputs, sessions of facilitation of the educational games. The impact expected will be the involvement of the local community trhough the promotion of the project and the outputs; raise the awareness of non-formal educativo in schools, youth organizations, educators, trainers, youthworkers and teachers (though the promotion of the project, sessions in institutions and organizations, open conference); better connection with the local youngsters. Raise awareness of non-formal education and educational boardgames as tools, trough sessions of facilitation of the games, website, youtube, facebook page, newsletters and personal contacts. Strengthen the relationships with other organizations and institutions, promoting the project and it's outcomes and providing support to develop new games. Share educational resources that can be used by other organizations and institutions, strengthen the relationships between european and international organizations, empower others to create and develop new tools of non-formal education, better recognition of non-formal education and it's importance, spreading the values and methods in Europe for other countries (some partners have professional relationships with other countries in the world and will share their outcomes). At a long term bennefits will be reached by the development of sessions of facilitation of the game to give the best use to this output and in the same way gather support and funding to develop new kits and other. Even that the facilitations should guarantee the access to all, sometimes they can have a participation fee or financial support of entities and companies, having in this way a method to increase the financial resources for the development of other kits and tools. The involvement of the youngsters will be vital to the sustainability of this project, in the way that they can be empowered to develop themselves the next kits (all materials are handmade). All participants in the project and in the dissemination and follow up activities will have a personal impact that can raise their knowledge and experience in economic/financial literacy and conflict resolution.
The idea for this project arose first and foremost from the financial difficulties that have permeated much of Europe for several years. The The idea for this project arose first and foremost from the financial difficulties that have permeated much of Europe for several years. The last few years have witnessed a big part of the burden of austerity being heaped onto the shoulders of the continent’s young people. We, the project group, felt there was a need to look into this and see if we, in our professions, could contribute towards something positive. This project was based on a couple of identified needs that we observed in the various participating countries. First, we saw a need for more effective and innovative instruments to encourage young people to become more aware and educated on how to manage one’s private economy. To become financially literate, to put it differently. This need was in large part based on the financial difficulties much of Europe has been going through over the last several years, and which persists still. Second, we found it to be an ongoing need to have more competence and understanding of conflict management among young people. We see clear links between the macro- and the micro level on this topic. Lastly, we had an idea of combining these two areas to attempt to provide concrete tools, especially to group of young people with fewer opportunities, to deal more constructively with troubling situations of financial difficulty without resorting to conflict. Communication about the initial ideas started between a few of the partners who knew each other well from a long list of previous collaborations. The project rationale and a couple of concrete ideas were then shared down the network of acquainted trainers, youth workers and organisations. All partners have been involved in this project based on their special competence or experience related to one or both of the concrete tools the project group wanted to develop. The centrepiece of this project has been to develop and produce two educational and interactive board games, to address financial literacy and conflict management - “Real Ideal” and “Mission Z”, respectively. The project has been undertaken with 10 formal partners, with one external partner that has also been involved throughout the whole project - including holding a crucial role in the actual production of all the game pieces for what has become “Real Ideal” and “Mission Z”. It was an important criterion for us that all the involved organisations, companies and informal groups are involved as directly as possible in field youth work or local community building. The results include that each partner now is in possession of 1 complete set of “Mission Z” and 4 complete sets of “Real Ideal”, attractively designed and formed in multipurpose materials. All game pieces have been handmade in a village in Portugal, and has thus created some employment during the project period, as well as improved the capacity of the same village and its people to produce more output of a similar sort in the future. Our testing of the concepts for both games has been rigorous. In total we have tested the two games with 653 participants who have all provided us with written feedback. This has enabled us to modify the games during the project period and adjust for input offered to us by the actual target group for both games, the young people themselves. The feedback from these participants has been overwhelmingly positive, across the board. This is the main thing for us, and gives us a feeling of having contributed well to the field of youth work and non-formal learning methods. The outputs of this project has also reached other circles, such as banks and universities that are keen on utilising these games in their education of financial literacy and conflict management, respectively. Some concrete partnerships along these lines have already been formalised. For more, and updated information also after the project’s end, we invite the reader to visit our website: http://bb-games.eu