Project events

The first five dissemination events and testing in the five partner countries

The aim of the first dissemination events was to

spread information
test the concept and relevance of the game, especially the characters and situations in the international context

It was not aim to test its gamification aspect, but some partners also concentrated on this aspect.

The audience was colourful and included all possible future users, from governmental consultants to child protection department’s experts (social workers, sociologists, psychologists), from future teachers of young people in difficult situations to real young people having problems or just “ordinary” youngsters.

The results of these first events were:

all partner events summarised that the game will be a useful and needed tool
some modifications will be important, mainly to have shorter descriptions and more compact materials
according to the project plan further work is needed on gamification

First dissemination event and testing in Romania

Organising partner: Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca

Date of the event: 14.02.2019

Place of the event: the office of the child protection department of the municipality

Lead person(s) of the event: László Éva, Dávid-Kacsó Ágnes

Number of the participants: 10

Composition of the participants: social workers, psychologists, sociologists

Why did we test the game with these participants (and not an other kind of possible participants)?

They work with abused children/youth and they use to make different kind of abuse prevention activities with different kind of vulnerable youth.

The content/short description of the event: test of the characters, possible improvement of the game, it’s adaptability and applicability to the specific client categories of the participants

Remarks from the participants:

proposals for improvement: shorter and more focused description of the characters, presentation of the situation and asking for solution from the part of the participants,
small cards with the main information about the characters
interactive approach to the situations, eventually role play

Our remarks and personal evaluation of the event: it was useful, with proposals for improvement.

First dissemination event and testing in Denmark

Organising partner: Copenhagen City Youth School

Date of the event: 8th of Febuary

Place of the event: Ministry of education

Lead person(s) of the event: Thulani Lindberg

Number of the participants: 10

Composition of the participants: Consultants in the Ministry of education

Why did you to test the game with these participants (and not another kind of possible participants)?

They work with preventing bullying in Denmark on a National level and have a lot of knowledge and insight on this matter.

The content/short description of the event:

I verbally explained to the participants, what the project is about and the intention of the test. This way they all had a preunderstanding before the day of testing.

Because they were not able to meet at the same time, I first tested the game with four participants and two hours later I tested with six other consultants. Both tests were completed in the same fashion. We did not play the game so much, but more went through the material.

Remarks from the participants:

Find out what the purpose of the game is
Make bystanders to have a bigger role
Have national versions of the game
Gamification should match the purpose of the game
Be careful not to stigmatize
Make sure teachers are ready to deal with potential sensitive/controversial situations.

Our remarks and personal evaluation of the event:

The test was very beneficial because we discussed the foundation of the game and realized that without a strong foundation then the game won’t be a success. The participants were critical but also saw a lot of potential in the game.

First dissemination event and testing in France

Organising partner: E2C73 (Second Chance School of Chambéry)

Date of the event: 11/02/2019

Place of the event: E2C73 (Second Chance School of Chambéry)

Lead person(s) of the event: Eloise CAMELIO and Marion DUPUY

Number of the participants: 12 participants

Composition of the participants:

9 students to become Educators for people in difficulties
2 social workers (workers in a social center)
1 volunteer (teacher of French for migrants)

Why did you to test the game with these participants (and not an other kind of possible participants):

Because these people work with a public that face discrimination.

The content/short description of the event:

Instructions of the first test of the game: 3 teams (1 character for 1 team of 3 or 4 people)

Each team choose 1 card = 1 character:
Exchange, debate on representations of discrimination for participants
After Distribution of character descriptions: Several questions for reflection on the project / game
Discussion of different situations – aced with these different situations according to you what could be the different reactions of your character? (5/10 min of exchange by group)

Remarks from the participants:

Follow the same modell of description of all characters (more structured)
More playful format for the game
The participants experienced some similar discrimination situations

Our remarks and personal evaluation of the event:

Lack of guidelines for the gamemaster: We didn’t know clearly how to play the game.
Lack of explanation of the purpose of the game to explain to participants why they made the tes and theirs roles.
Format of the game not enough playful.
Too long descriptions for characters of the test.

First dissemination event and testing in Portugal

– Organising partner: AE2O – Association for Second Chance Education

– Date of the event: 13th February 2018

– Place of the event: E2OM – Second Chance School of Matosinhos

– Lead person(s) of the event: Diana Reis

– Number of the participants: 10 participants

– Composition of the participants: 8 students of Óscar Lopes School and 2 volunteers

– Why did you to test the game with these participants (and not an other kind of possible participants)?

Victims of bullying and aggressors as well, with different social backgrounds.

– The content/short description of the event:

One of us started to explain the project and the aims of it, talked about the different characters and situations and what was expected from each participant. It was said they would work in pairs. They were anxious to begin.

The other one began to distribute the first cards, with the presentation of the characters. They read them for themselves and presented the characters to the other pairs.

We asked them if they knew similar persons in real life, and they nodded. They even referred names of colleagues that had the same characteristics.

Then we gave them different situations of emotional mocking and physical abuse and asked them to choose the reaction they considered more adequate and share with the colleagues to create more interaction and discussion between them.

They always chose the same two options: asking for help and assertive coping. Both of us asked them the reason why of these choices, and they let us know that for them, the other options were no good solutions.

In this first testing we didn’t won’t to use the dices or use the “right” and “wrong” response because our goal was to understand if that cases were real to this youngsters, if it was possible to create discussion about these themes between them and if it was possible to use this kind of material in the classes to work about the theme of bullying and violence.

Then the session came to an end. They said “Oh! Already?”. We replied it had already passed an hour and we had to finish. We talked some more time with them, because they didn’t want to go away. The pupils from the other school told they would come the next day if

it was necessary. They were really great.

Remarks from the participants:

– “I have already acted like Olga. Once I told a teacher I didn’t want to work with a certain girl. It was in front of all the class. Now I see that I shouldn’t have acted like that…”

– “Sometimes I also feel discriminated like Lily. I am a boy of color, and I am almost never given an opportunity in my team. Once I asked the coach why that happened. He told me I was always offside and I tried to correct it. Sometimes I talk, sometimes I don’t say nothing. I feel sad about it.”

– “My mother suffered physical and emotional abuse during many years. In the beginning her reaction option was escape, that is, to ignore what happened. Then, she understood that the problem didn’t get solved and she opted for an assertive coping – She asked for divorce”.

Our remarks and personal evaluation of the event:

We thought these students would be shy and quiet, because they didn’t know neither the school nor the professionals who worked there. However, it was completely different. They came with a lot of curiosity to know a different school and a mysterious activity. They knew it was about bullying, nothing more. After a certain time, we were no more talking about the game, but about real-life problems. So, as a first experience, we can say the testing had very good results. All the participants congratulated us for the game.

First dissemination event and testing in Bulgaria

Organising partner: Theatre Tsvete

Date of the event: 22.02.2019

Place of the event: the 117^th secondary school „St.St.Kiril&Metodi” in Buhovo town

Lead person(s) of the event: Ekaterina Kazakova, Mrtin Noev and Tsvete Yaneva

Number of the participants:10

Composition of the participants: 5 girls and 5 boys of the 7th grade, 14 years old.

Why did you to test the game with these participants (and not an other kind of possible participants): Buhovo is a small minor town on the outskirts of Sofia City with a predominantly Roma population. These pupils are the average representatives of the workers’ majority.

The content/short description of the event:

The Game Masters formed two groups (boys and girls) and distributed tasks related to the characters. The game master tried to encourage the participants to present this scene, which was happening with varying success. They rather wanted to comment on the case, the extent to which it personally concerned them, to condemn the abusers. The youngsters worked on cases of of the characters verbal, financial and sexual harassment.

Remarks from the participants:

Since our participants already had 7 lessons in the morning and then we had been working for more than an hour, we asked them if they wanted to go on with the game. Everyone gave a positive answer.

At the end the participants appreciated the game very high, which they wrote in the questionnaires. They even wrote about the event on the FB’s school page.

Your remarks, your personal evaluation of the event: At the moment, the participation of young people is limited to the choice of one of several mentioned solutions. Needs more independent tasks.