Play for Peace - A Critical Look at Games in Educational Work

The Project

Playful activities, games and energizers are very present in the activities of international Peace and Volunteering Organisations, such as SCI, VCV, and their partners. They are used in volunteer camps to bring the group together, and to work on contents during seminars and trainings. There is hardly any volunteering group that does not play games during their projects.

• But why are we actually using these playful methods?
• What should we consider when playing?
• And what are good examples for games & playful methods?

Games in educational work got institutionalised without considerably reflecting neither their use, their advantages, nor their challenges. On the one hand, games can be very helpful and useful in the seminar context. On the other hand, they can be criticised regarding the reproduction of stereotypes or as violating the personal space of participants. To debate the role of playful activities and games in volunteering activities, SCI Germany together with VCV Serbia organise this project aimed at trainers, youth workers, group coordinators and volunteers.

During the 1st Activity, the Play for Peace Training in April 2022, participants from different peace and volunteering organisations gathered in Sonthofen/Germany to learn about the use of playful activities and games in Non-Formal Education and their huge connection to discrimination. They discussed societal power structures and how these structures, as well as stereotypes and discrimination, can be present during playful activities and games. Participants are currently implementing the outcomes of the training in their local activities and try to use playful methods and games that are more inclusive and peaceful.

Now we are looking for applications and participants for the 2nd Activity of the project, the Play for Peace Seminar in Mali Iđoš near Novi Sad/Serbia. During the seminar, we will have a more detailed look at playful methods and games. We will try out energizers, simulation games and board games that are useful for educational purposes. We will critically reflect on the pros and cons of these games.

We intend to develop a Manual on inclusive and peaceful games and energizers for youth workers during the seminar. Therefore, a big part of the seminar will be to collect, to discuss and to gather more information for the Manual.

This seminar also gives space to connect to other international organisations and to get information about their ways of using playful methods that are sensitive towards discrimination. We will have a big open space in which everyone can share methods and games with the rest of the group.

After the seminar, there will be a Follow-Up Period. Two, three and four months after the seminar, we will hold joint video conferences with the trainers and all participants. The conferences aim to finalise the Manual, to share updates on new projects that evolved during the project, to strengthen the network and partnerships, and to provide support to the participants, for further project implementation.

This call for applications comprises the last two parts of the Play for Peace project:

The Seminar from 16th to 22nd October 2022, and the Follow-Up Period until early 2023.

You can join the project even if you have not participated in the previous activities. All activities will be held in English language.

The Venue: The seminar will take place at Katai Farm in Mali Iđoš, Serbia.

The Team: An experienced team of trainers and facilitators of SCI and VCV will facilitate the seminar.

Living in a Group

We will spend one week together in a group of 32 people. 32 people with different backgrounds and experiences. For us it is very important to take time to create a safer space to live and work together. For this we will set up a group agreement all together at the beginning. Please be aware that Inclusion, anti-discrimination and reduction of stereotypes is nothing very easy and might be challenging for people. We invite you to come openly to the seminar and to be open to learn and reflect and on the same side be mistake-friendly!

Aims of the project

• Critically reflect on games used in non-formal education by raising awareness for different forms of discrimination, as well as safer spaces to create more inclusive youth and volunteering projects
• Raise awareness and understanding of intersectional perspectives (global justice, gender, class, race, inclusion, climate justice) when facilitating and organising youth projects by developing and sharing inclusive, diverse and power-critical games
• Understand the role of peace and human rights in games in educational work
• Improve the quality of NFE instruments that can be used in future events, projects, trainings, seminars and general meetings
• Provide youth workers with tools and methods for power-critical, inclusive and peaceful games in educational work
• Create a Manual for games in educational work that includes underlying concepts, shared experiences with safer spaces in games, and guidelines for peaceful playing
• Create more and stronger alliances and solidarity in the peace and volunteering movement

Outcomes

• Joint creation of the Manual on peaceful playing: NFE methods about peaceful playing, a critical look on gamification of educational work, and tips and tricks for inclusive and sensitive games in educational work.
• Development of future projects.
• Methods
• As this seminar is about peaceful playing, we will use many Non-Formal Education (NFE) methods, especially games and energizers, for critical reflection but also a broad variety of non-formal education methods, such as world cafe, snowball discussions, research, silent exhibition, simulation games, theatre, visual harvesting, arts, energizers, role games, teambuilding games, and more.

Everyone who comes to this seminar should...

• ideally be an active member and be involved in the process and decision structures of their sending organisation
• have some experience in international group works as participant or better as trainer/facilitator or group coordinator
• be interested in learning more about the use of games in groups and to discuss this critically
• be aware of power structures and be able to approach them both sensitively and critically
• be committed to abstain from flying, but travel to the event via overland route instead;
• be committed to spreading their new skills and competences to their sending branches, e.g. via a workshop or a camp coordinator training.
• allow time and ideas for both the seminar and the finalisation phase;
• be motivated to participate actively in the production of the outcomes and in the implementation period
• have sufficient English language skills (spoken and written).

Individuals with a residence or a passport from one of the following countries can apply: 

Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany,North Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain. In case you don't have a sending organisation, residence or passport in any of these countries, don't hesitate to contact playforpeace@sci-d.de - we'll try to find a solution together. 

Please note that there will be opportunities to visit Mali Iđoš and its surroundings, but that this is not a “getting to know the region” project. On some days, the seminar also foresees evening sessions.

Logistics, financial conditions and sustainability

• Simple life: The seminar will take place in a seminar house with simple living conditions. You will sleep in a room shared with few other people.

• Sustainable food: The food provided by the house will be vegetarian/vegan. This is not just a practical decision, but also an ideological one: SCI and VCV believe in the values of sustainability and climate justice – and if we want to contribute to a more peaceful planet, we need to give up on industrialised animal agriculture and its destructive effects on our planet.

• Sustainable travels: This is also why we ask you to come to this seminar through more sustainable means of transport rather than flying (e.g. by train or bus). You can reach Mali Iđoš by bus via Novi Sad from many places. We will give you more guidance on how you can reach the venue once you have been accepted to the seminar. If you chose to travel by green means (not by plane), your max. travel costs allowance might rise, depending on where you travel from. Talk to the coordinator (playforpeace@sci-d.de) to know more.

• Covid19 regulations: Please be advised that there may be changes due to the pandemic. We ask you not to book your trip before we have confirmed to you that the seminar will take place at the planned location. We will do so a few weeks before the seminar starts.

  We will inform you about the specific protective measures during the seminar with the Infosheet. For everyone's protection, we ask you to take a rapid test either before you leave home or directly upon arrival at the seminar location and to present us with the negative proof.

  Upon confirmation, you are responsible to ensure that your trip complies with the latest recommendations of the health authorities regarding the spread of Covid19.

We are looking forward to your application :-)

The coordinating team – Britta, Francesca, Cris, Emily, & Sima*

For any questions contact: playforpeace@sci-d.de