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Future Leaders for United Societies

2021-1-DE04-KA152-YOU-0000204662021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: DE|IE|RO|ES · Grant: €14,873
European identity, citizenship and valuesQuality and innovation of youth workCommunity development

Objectives

The project "Future Leaders for United Societies" was our third project of its kind and can be seen as a continuation of the pilot project "Preparing Future Leaders with ERA" which we ran in 2018. The previous project produced amazing leaders who have started to be very active in their home countries and we wanted to expand this success to other countries and improve the event by addressing the weaknesses we found. We believe that we did this very successfully. We put a larger focus on uniting societies and giving the participants the feeling of how valuable it is to be able to cooperate on an international level. The basic idea was for different youth groups to choose a fantasy role-playing background in a fantasy setting and face challenges that were combined in an exciting interactive story. What made this event so special was that it offered an engaging way for the participants to influence the game world and through their actions and decisions they shaped the society that the heroes they played lived in. Since they were the heroes of the story their goal was to achieve a good ending, which meant shaping a society that they perceived as good and fair. After the game we based our discussions on the game results and the experiences the youths made. We critically questioned decisions and actions and analyzed results in the game world. We then compared the experiences with the world we live in and applied the ideas that youths had for their in-game society to the real world. Before the event the groups created scenes that posed challenges and encouraged value discussions (such as individual freedom vs. the good of the community). We provided them with a fantasy setting handbook that was developed in a youth worker event in 2017. The groups experienced the game elements during the actual game event and used their own experience as a basis for intercultural value discussions. We implemented reflection and discussion phases on a regular basis. The participants lived together for a week. They were divided into smaller mixed teams in which they played a hero that experienced an adventure set in a fantasy setting. Since different heroes had different skills and knowledge, cooperation was the key to overcoming the obstacles and successfully completing the game. Some of the participants (primarily the group leaders) prepared the adventure in advance and took on the role of game directors during the event. They described the adventure as a story in which the players, working in teams, could decide what their heroes do and say, so that they influenced the direction of the storyline. The game was played both inside and outside, making it possible for the teams to go on long walks and play while experiencing the environment. We chose a wonderful location near Cologne for this (Solingen) which offered us a lot of hiking spots with inspiring vistas and a house that allowed us to cook meals together. Among the learning goals were developing teamwork, cooperation, and friendship in an international setting, improving soft skills and social competences, acquiring cultural understanding, raising awareness of other values and beliefs, and improving language and communication skills. Our big learning goal defined for this event was getting youths more active in shaping the society they live in by first understanding what it means to make responsible decisions in order to accommodate a variety of values and beliefs. We focused on international cooperation and combatting extremism because nowadays too many people have the idea that becoming active in society means trying to push your own values and beliefs through regardless of others. Giving young people the opportunity of cooperating, developing an understanding for each other, and building a lasting friendship will have a huge impact on society in the future. The participants we chose were already actively involved in helping others, and thus they will also have an influence on shaping the minds of other young people and contribute to creating an open, tolerant, and united society in Europe.

Project partners (4)