Our objectives were to: 1. Reduce the impact of the pandemic on young people's physical and psychological well-being. 2. Design and use youth-friendly public spaces with and for young people. We, therefore, invited local young people to participate actively, and through the process, they learned about gamification, how it can enliven public spaces, and how to use it to increase physical activity for other young people and the wider local community. Young people were the promoters and implementers of gamification ideas in both local communities, with the mentoring support of youth workers, responding to the challenges of the post-pandemic era and improving the user experience and image of public spaces.
This project is a great stepping stone for us to lay the foundations for developing our organisation in youth. Above all, we wanted to give young people positive exposure to the local environment, to give them a space to share and implement their ideas, which also impact the public space where they spend part of their free time. In preparing the project proposal, we considered their needs, the needs of the local youth that emerged after the pandemic - a significant drop in physical activity among young people, a decrease in the time spent outdoors in the air and social and sporting activities. This was also the case in the environments of our partners with whom we partnered (Active from Tallinn, Estonia and Aspira from Trbovlje). Therefore, our project set out to use gamification elements to create attractive public spaces to encourage more physical activity among young people in the local environment and thus help address the consequences (decline in physical fitness stamina, increase in obesity, poorer mental health).