NARRATIVES OF RESISTANCE: ESCAPE ROOM LEARNING FOR GAMING INCLUSION

Background When the creation of this project began to be considered, its promoters were well aware of the severe barriers that migrants and refugees face when trying to build a home again once they arrive in a host country. Precisely in 2019 there was an unprecedented refugee crisis, so we saw the urgent need to dedicate our efforts to raise awareness in the European society, especially among young people, on promoting inclusion and cultural diversity as a powerful tool to build a better and stronger society and community. According to the UNHCR report, 63.311 people risked their lives trying to reach Europe between January and September 2019, and more than 1.028 drowned in the first half of that year… when the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t even arrived yet. With these data in mind, the 5 entities forming this project wanted to address the clear need to promote the inclusion of these people by raising awareness among youth, developing their values, their citizenship, and participation, by showing them the harsh reality of migration, which they don’t usually know, and allowing them to be the protagonists of this improvement Objectives With this context of migration crisis in mind, added to the ignorance of society (especially young people) about the reality of migrants, we set out to improve their quality of life and inclusion by increasing society’s awareness of this harsh situation. To achieve it, we devised the project “NARRATIVES OF RESISTANCE: ESCAPE ROOM LEARNING FOR GAMING INCLUSION”, with which we have generated highly impactful tools so that not only the promoters, but also social entities, local governments, youth associations, scout groups, etc. can work with local young people to promote the values of tolerance, respect, and citizenship. Society, entities, and European governments must not forget the hundreds of thousands of people in refugee camps, who arrive with nothing and must face the unknown, misery, society’s distrust, and recently even a pandemic without adequate preparation. Thus, we wanted to turn young people into active participating agents for diversity, teaching them the necessary processes to achieve full inclusion that makes life easier for many youth born outside Europe. Implementation Throughout the project we carried out an intense work process that included multiple activities for the creation of the main result, in addition to the much-needed dissemination activities, Transnational Meetings, etc., dividing all the activities carried out into phases: The PREPARATION PHASE, in which the first communication mechanisms were established, the tasks of each working group were defined, and the participants were selected. The IMPLEMENTATION PHASE, which included the main result-creating activities (divided into character sheets, scenarios, action cards…), web development, testing of results, and writing reports. The DISSEMINATION PHASE once the results were finalized, which included meetings with the media, visibility in networks, presentation activities, etc. And lastly the FINAL EVALUATION PHASE, focused on the evaluation of the whole project and its results, the writing of this report, and laying the foundations for the future sustainability of the project, and the widening of the network. Achievements Thanks to the hard work carried out by the partner entities, our volunteers, and the participants in the activities, we were able to generate all the results of this project as planned, with a much higher quality than what had been initially planned. Thus, we can say that the main result and the one with the greatest impact is the O1 Intellectual Output, the COURSE “ONE OF US”, which lays the foundations for training young people on the inclusion and reality of migrants through the innovative gaming and role-playing methodologies used in it. This course supported itself in the game created to be taught, via different sessions, and that turns young people into active participating agents for diversity and inclusion. But in addition to this COURSE as the main result, we have also developed several tangible results, many of them included in the game (character sheets, cards, game box…), and others such as the project’s website itself (which explains the course, its methodology, and through which the resources can be downloaded), and some intangible outcomes, such as European networking and youth learning.