From the 18th to 20th of July 2022 the first moment of in-person group work was held within the Erasmus+ Project Cityful. The Meeting was hosted in Bordeaux by the french partner organization Co-actions. Together with Itinerari Paralleli (Italy), Trokut Sibenik (Croatia), Nordic European Mobility (Sweden) and Cinisello Balsamo City Council operators have been working on the realization of the Project Results of Cityful. The Project aims to support and create new opportunities for Europe’s NEET’s and drop-out’s (young people who have dropped out of school) through the enhancement and formation of youthworkers, strengthening of the third sector and an interactive, digital game which will be created by the partnership. After ceveral online sessions about game design, everyone was grateful to meet in person, to get to know each other better and confrontate about different topics regarding the project.
The past three days in France offered the space to exchange experiences and opinions, drawing inspiration from it and learning from each other, thanks to the workshops led by Itinerari Paralleli , which shared different methodologies, concepts and strategies about Game Design, which will be usefull for the creation of the game “Cityful”. By entering in a virtual world, the player will be invited to fullfill different tasks, discover the territory and it’s surrounding while gaining new skills and informations regarding opportunities for youth. The experience of the game will be applicable in real life and might help the young people to face new challenges and step out of their comfort zones.
For the Design of the Game we discussed about it’s structure, rules and graphics. Participants tested video games by experimenting the role of the “player” and were able to imagine effectively how the game should be designed to reach and get appreciated by the choosen target group.
The european partners and the operators from the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo had the chance to meet some young french people with the age from 16 to 17, founders of the social cooperative “SABENX”: The young people involved are managing independently the entire cooperative (from communication and promotion to customer contact, from administration to receipts), offering their services to other local private or public enterprises then divide the gains equally.
SABENX is an successfull example of young active citizens who, on their own initiative, experiment with practical experiences useful for developing vocational skills to enter the labor market: an interesting example of how NEETs and drop-outs can be prevented or addressed.
The next work group, will be hosted by the croation partner Trokut Sibenik in November 2022 and meanwhile we will continue online to develop the outcomes of the project thorugh ceveral co-design sessions, always guided by Itinerari Paralleli.
Once produced, the game will also be tested by youth and operators in a week-long training session scheduled for March 2023 in Italy.
