Changing The Game
In early May, a bunch of young people from Poland, Latvia, Greece and the UK gathered in the beautiful permaculture farm and retreat centre Żywa Ziemia in northern Poland, to spend one week playing, discussing, studying and exploring together what a Culture of Peace could look like and how to bring it into organisations through a gamified approach.
We spent many hours learning about the United Nations Culture of Peace concept, about how this can be embodied and encouraged within relationships and organisations, as well as how it can be translated into a game. For this, we got some behind-the-scenes insights into how games are built and what they consist of. Once we had the theory and methodology down, we were not only engaging in discussions around how to put the components of the culture of peace into the components, mechanics and dynamics of a game, but also spent a lot of time play-testing the game prototype and reading and improving the manual that had been developed in previous meetings of the “Changing the Game: Developing Culture of Peace in Organisations” Erasmus+ program.
We also practised non-violent communication, mindfulness, empathy, deep listening, conflict resolution and community building throughout the week. THrough this, we got to experience competences needed for a Culture of Peace which can help collectives and professionals to develop more effective ways of discussing and decision-making in organisations and society.
While we were working hard and having a lot of fun play-testing the game, role-playing, facilitating, and studying, we also had time to enjoy an evening around the fire, a fun afternoon road trip to the sea, and a lot of stunning nature and beautiful animals around us on the farm.
Friendship happens quickly on the road and especially in such loving community settings, and thus the group quickly bonded and the beginnings of meaningful friendships were formed.
I am especially grateful for the long, deep, honest, profound conversations (and spontaneous psychology study sessions) as well as hilariousness with Mohamed and Karl and all the wisdom, depth, fun and silliness with my Latvian and Polish sisters Asnate, Lucie and Marta, as well as with Stas and all the others.
The final results of the Erasmus+ project will be a card game and a manual about Culture of Peace and competences needed to develop it, which will be finalised in the next months.
