PLAY - PLatform for Linking Young People is a 20 month long strategic partnership project initiated by young people which aims The aim of the project is to provide a platform for youth leaders to use gamification and game pedagogy in their professional lives and to support young people in developing games and through their actions to foster the inclusion in European societies through straightened competences of groups of young people. With the development of this project idea we give the opportunity to young people to take an initiative, to implement their own ideas and turn them into actions in a creative and exciting way. With the growing visual and digital input and accelerated development in Europe, young people need more creative, eventful and more sensory learning opportunities where they can be not only the “users” of the educational input, but also shapers, creators and innovators who form their own learning path and the learning paths of their peers. Taking under consideration the needs of our target group, the ideas and initiative of young people as well as the growing problems in Europe creating a society where social inclusion does not appear as an important value, we created the PLAY! project to provide a creative, innovative solution to these issues. The activities of the project were created following these objectives: - to develop opportunities for youth leaders to use games as educational tools - to use game pedagogy techniques to develop the skills and competences of disadvantaged young people - to engage and empower young people to become and active shaper of their communities - to strengthen young people’s sense of initiative, entrepreneurship and volunteering; - to develop skills and competences of young people about gamification and how to put their ideas into action to create an innovative tool of non-formal education; - to create games, educational tools to promote and increase social inclusion in Europe; - to promote youth- and learner centered approach in non-formal education. The project provides the opportunity for youth leaders to learn more about game development and game pedagogy. Young leaders participating in this project will provide programmes for disadvantaged youth groups using playing and game development as tools for their development. Implementing this project will not only result on the strong effect of the participating young people and on the partner organisations realizing it but also on youth work in general. All partner organisations and its young people are motivated to take part in this project - they will be involved in different ways to contribute to fulfill the aims and objectives, but they will all benefit the same from the results. The main aim of the project is to start using game pedagogy as a skill development tool in youth work. Through straightening competences of groups of young people by allowing them to put their ideas into action and create and use innovative educational tools for the youth we will be able to reach out to more disadvantaged youth groups and involve them in our daily work. During the project we plan to deliver 2 mobility activities in order to develop the skills and competences of young people and youth workers. These capacity building activities are very important considering the results of the project, as these are the events where young people learn about the topic - game pedagogy and game development - and learn how to use gamification techniques. Without these activities the project would stand without a proper basement as the participants could not have the required knowledge to deliver quality educational programmes using games as tools. With the mobility activities we not only intend to share knowledge but also to motivate the young people to take part in this project. Through working together and getting to know each other they will have to fuel to keep going and succeed. With this project we seek to improve the level of key competences and skills of young people and youth leaders, such as sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, leadership and facilitation skills in order to improve the quality of their work and the activities they organise, and to reach further into the European dimension of their youth work.
Taking under consideration the needs and the ideas of young people we created the PLAY project to provide a platform for youth leaders to use gamification and game pedagogy in their professional lives and to empower young people through methods of game based learning to become more active citizens and through their actions to foster the inclusion in the European societies. The activities of the project were created following these objectives: - to develop opportunities for youth leaders to use games as educational tools; - to use game pedagogy techniques to develop the skills and competences of disadvantaged young people; - to engage and empower young people to become active shapers of their communities; - to strengthen young people’s sense of initiative, entrepreneurship and volunteering; - to develop skills and competences of young people about gamification and how to put their ideas into action to create an innovative tools of non-formal education; - to create games, educational tools to promote and increase social inclusion in Europe; - to promote youth- and learner centered approach in non-formal education. The project provided the opportunity for youth leaders to learn more about game development and game pedagogy.
PLAY - PLatform for Linking Young People is a 35 month long strategic partnership project initiated by young people who where part of a previous long term partnership project. With the development of this project idea we gave the opportunity to young people to take an initiative, to implement their own ideas and turn them into actions in a creative and exciting way. Young people want to be more active in their communities, but not only as final users of youth work opportunities, but also as creators and active shapers of their communities. Therefore based on these needs the PLAY project was initiated to support their willingness to build inclusive communities and use game pedagogy and game development as methods for empowerment and personal development. Young people involved in this project wanted to raise attention to experiential learning and use their love towards games and the expertise gained in game making so it can not only be for their own benefits, but for the benefits of all young people as well as the benefit of youth work in Europe. Therefore with this project we sought to improve the level of key competences and skills of young people and youth leaders in order to provide more quality youth.