Here are three resources which have recently crossed my path that involve using fun and games for social change. Some of these work with groups and some work across social spaces – demographics, communities or organizations. What I like about these games is that they provide a built in set of measureables that can be used to gauge progress and evaluate behaviour change. Sesms like combining fun, visible change and simple yet powerful standards for noticing shift is the holy grail in this kind of work.
Games for Change: Games for Change (G4C) is a non-profit which seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, education, human rights, global conflict and climate change. G4C acts as a voice for the transformative power of games, bringing together organizations and individuals from the nonprofit sector, government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts, to grow the sector and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and resources.
The Fun Theory: I’ve blogged this before, but The Fun Theory is “dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”
The FreeChild Project: Lots of games and resources at this website dedictaed to youth engagement around social change. FreeChild has been working for almost eight years to promote the idea that when engaged in meaningful ways throughout society, the knowledge, action and wisdom of children and youth can make the world more democratic, more non-violent and engaging for everyone. By working with adults as allies young people learn, teach and lead democracy throughout society!
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Hosting an Open Space gathering in Kamloops today with about 40 people who work hard around issues of child and youth health. We are exploring ways to connect differently and do our work at the next level. The conversations have started and the topics are rich. I thought I would put the list here and see if any of you readers in blog land have resources to offer that we can forward to the folks meeting here today. And if you are in Kamloops and do this work, come on up to Thompson Rivers University and join the conversation.
Session 1
11:00 – 12:15
- How to develop intergenerational programming (ie seniors and youth)
- How do we engage children who come from families dealing with addictions?
- How can we drastically improve reading instruction in your child’s school? These top 5 items from research can be supported in a half-hour daily routine in the classroom.
- How do we start the process to develop a children’s charter in Kamloops?
- What opportunities are out there to use youth wilderness programs to engage youth in meaningful community development?
- How do we better connect youth/schools to the local food system? For example: engaging shcools to start gardnes or increasing local food sold in schools?
- How to create a culture to encourage families at perinatal stage to have access to services and supports which are integrated with traditional service providers?
Session 2
12:15-1:45
- Wow! Statistics!
- I would like to better understand our needs and gaps so that I can better support the community.
- How do we develop and sustain our networks? What are the possibilities of our networks?
- How to create service for parents with disabilities?
- How can we reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in sexually active youth?
Session 3
1:45-3:00
- How to develop fitness/physical literacy program for 2.5 to 5 year olds?
- How to keep children and youth engagement authentic, original and fresh so they have the agenda and don’t get bored?
- How do we better connect school and community centres and programs for collaborative work?
- How do we reduce stigma attached to social programs to include more children youth and family?
- Teachers and youth workers as gardners, hiking guides and community development professionals.
- How do we collectively support and empower parents in our communities to recognize that they have such a crucial role?
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Meg Wheatley on great questions to ask as we think about measurement, especially in complex living systems (like human communities):
Who gets to create the measures? Measures are meaningful and important only when generated by those doing the work. Any group can benefit from others’ experience and from experts, but the final measures need to be their creation. People only support what they create, and those closest to the work know a great deal about what is significant to measure.
How will we measure our measures? How can we keep measures useful and current? What will indicate that they are now obsolete? How will we keep abreast of changes in context that warrant new measures? Who will look for the unintended consequences that accompany any process and feed that information back to us?
Are we designing measures that are permeable rather than rigid? Are they open enough? Do they invite in newness and surprise? Do they encourage people to look in new places, or to see with new eyes?
Will these measures create information that increases our capacity to develop, to grow into the purpose of this organization? Will this particular information help individuals, teams, and the entire organization grow in the right direction? Will this information help us to deepen and expand the meaning of our work?
What measures will inform us about critical capacities: commitment, learning, teamwork, quality and innovation? How will we measure these essential behaviors without destroying them through the assessment process? Do these measures honor and support the relationships and meaning-rich environments that give rise to these behaviors?
These are great questions to consider at the Show Me The Change conference in Melbourne as we dive into questions on the implications for complexity on the measurements used to evaluate change in living and complex systems.
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From a recent Art of Hosting in Sweden comes a learning from some young leaders thinking about how to lead in networks:
1. Open and transparency of decision making process and “organizational” structure, even if it’s dynamic. No Taboos or un-written rule. The aim should be to make the system as visible as possible.
2. Empowers loads of action (systemically): What is the minimum structure needed to enable self-organizing and action?
3. Good communication culture (this is the real challenge I guess)
4. Clear process of creation and updating the leading thoughts
5. Low entrance step, it’s easy to join, accessible.
6. Inclusive, nobody is left out if they want to contribute and participate.
7. Purpose large enough but clear enough. People should feel that I want to be part of this. Purpose is container both for action and expansion. Case: 350.org brought together many networks, as did Survival Academy.
via How to lead a network well? ideas from AoH Karlskrona | Monkey Business.
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This is my friend Colleen Stevenson, a lovely graphic recorder that I work with whenever I can. Here she is talking about permaculture principles, something which she knows a lot about, and talking about this large shart she drew to capture and start conversations on how these principles work in learning.