"Inspirational Personal Development Game ""Life's Cards"""

"<< Background >>The joint needs of the project partnership included the wish and objective to promote inclusion and equality, by creating a practical tool to help marginalized young people from rural areas to increase their self-belief, trust in themselves, self-determination and self-responsibility in becoming the “leaders of own life”. The partners wanted to find proof and demonstrate that the location and geographical barriers are just one factor influencing our choices and life – if we realize how it can be solved, how it can be compensated by other factors (e.g. factors that are missing in big cities and urban areas), how to look at the situations from “resource prism” instead of “barrier prism”, then there IS a road to grow and succeed. Additionally, the partners wanted to empower themselves: each partner had considerable knowledge, experience and expertise already acquired, but there was still more potential for growth and development, in order to become even more powerful, give more impact, more inspiration to local communities, youth field and all the target groups in the area of this project. << Objectives >>If young people do not see enough success examples nearby (which very often is due to geographical and social barriers in remote rural territories), if they do not have supporting environment around, it is hardly possible that they will become active persons with their own sense of initiative and ready to get involved in any social, civic or economic processes. They can also be discriminated as employees or not use their potential as entrepreneurs. “LIFE’S CARDS” project wanted to prove the opposite. During the project period (18 months), we developed an Inspirational Personal Development Game ""LIFE’s CARDS"" - as a non-formal educational tool for young people, youth organizations, youth workers, youth supporters – to empower marginalized young people aged 15-30 to increase their self-belief, self-trust, self-determination and self-initiative. The project wanted to promote equal opportunities and access of young people with geographical barriers to employability and satisfying job, entrepreneurship and career development. The project approach was largely based into Tony Robbins’ teachings, incl. that our current situation does not determine our future. Our thoughts determine our actions, and our actions determine our future. << Implementation >>Six main activities were implemented in “LIFE’S CARDS” project: 1) Regional case studies of 20 young people (incl. 10 cases in Latgale (Latvia) and 10 cases in Crete island (Greece),2) Development of card game “Life’s Cards” (incl. 2 study visits and game creation workshops), 3) Creation of the Set of Supporting Manual (incl. joint elaboration of the Initial Life Assessment form, Game’s Instructions and full support Manual)4) Pilot-testing of the new game (incl., 2 pilot-testing workshops for youth groups of 15 people each country),5) Printing of 200 copies of the game and Manual (90 copies in Latvian, 90 copies in Greek, 20 copies in English),6) Result Dissemination and Publicity (incl. 2 final conferences, 36 articles, social media posts and videos in Latvia and 21 publications, incl. videos in Greece) – please, find the LIFE’S CARDS project dissemination register attached as Excel file with 3 sheets!First 5 activities were planned to create the main output of the project while the last one was meant to disseminate the project results and make a wider impact. All 6 activities (with their sub-activities) have been implemented as originally planned to meet the project’s goal.<< Results >>The concrete output is the new practical educational tool to be used in work with marginalized young people aged 15-30 for realizing key success factors. The card Game represents a “road” demonstrating how personal choices lead to changes, how personal decisions can change the directions. The process of the game shows and proves that the 8 start-up cards are only the beginning, but not the destiny. Playing the game and doing the additional tasks “on the road” give young people empowerment and encourage them to take charge of their own lives, in spite of geographical barriers. As a result of the project, around 160 persons have been reached directly offline (10 people from project partners’ organizations, 30 participants Latvian workshops, 30 participants in Greek workshops, as well as in total 120 Project Final conference attendees in both countries.Beside the main project result – “LIFE’S CARDS” game and the Manual – the long term impact will be stronger mind-set, mental fitness and entrepreneurial spirit of young people from rural and distant areas in Latvia and in Greece to take the lead of their own lives. More young people will realize that the current situation does not determine the future, but one's own choices do."