Serious gaming for a better Europe

In our modern societies, racism and discrimination are widespreading increasingly. Young people feel less concerned by these issues and this generates incivilities. In this context, it is paramount to inform, educate, explain and question the role of national and European citizenship, regarding interculturalism, tolerance and mutual respect, so that the target public is fully aware of its role and responsibility.A consortium of 6 partners from the university and non profit sectors have been working together for 3 years in order to achieve the overall objective of the project: to contribute to the creation of a European society, which is more inclusive and respectful of all, by educating and empowering young people and their teachers about interculturalism. The consortium was made up of 3 NGOs: Le Partenariat (leader, France), Studio Globo (Belgium), and City Link Haarlem (Netherlands); as well as 3 higher education institutions: Artesis Plantijn Hoge School Antwerpend (Belgium), Dundalk Institute of Technology (Irland) and ISPGaya (Portugal).The target public includes students (20 to 25 year olds), high school students (15 to 18 year olds) and their teachers, from the 6 European countries involved. The operational objectives were the following:-Link and empower high-school students, university students and teachers in the different partner countries, so they can discuss the topics and create new game content.-The creation of an immersive contextual serious game for young people aged 15 to 18.-The creation of a free training for teachers, so that they can themselves bring awareness to their students and thus increase the impact of the project.-The dissemination of the project tools, to increase their impact.The project allowed to develop an educational digital serious game exploring refugees’ path within Europe. It was created through 2 mobilities of Irish, Belgian, and Portuguese students, with the support of partners and other resource persons (teachers, high school students, national education representatives from each country, serious game specialists …). YPFO (Young People with Fewer Opportunities) high school students were involved during the creation of the serious game (tests and choice of content).A teachers’ manual and a training course for teachers have also been created in order to complement the serious game. The teachers’ manual is free and available on the project web platform (http://www.citizenschool.eu/). The training course was provided to the teachers as a face-to-face session. Several national and international dissemination events have been carried out to ensure the dissemination of the outputs, reaching more than 160 participants, completed by the digital communication of each partner. These outputs are also available on-line via our interactive platform that allows to connect the several target audiences of the project.The project reached more than 7,320 people (high school students, teachers, students, European organisations), and its dissemination will proceed beyond the funding since September 2019, allowing to contribute to the implementation of more inclusive and tolerant European society.