Young New Horizons facilitates interaction and dialogue through game play, with the overall goal of increasing awareness, understanding and empathy among youth residing in Finland. JAMK has recruited students to teach the game for young people around central Finland.
The New Horizons games are products of ongoing collaboration of students and teachers at JAMK University of Applied Sciences with local high schools, NGOs and municipal organisations, as well as our partner George Simons International, the originator of the diversophy® series of cultural training games.
– We wanted to respond to the program launched by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2016 to prevent hate speech and racism and promote social inclusion. Games have long been used as effective training tools. These games are designed to help, for example, multicultural team leaders, teachers, coaches, and anyone from different cultures, says Steven Crawford, a business lecturer at JAMK.
Key educational goals of the New Horizons project include developing facilitation skills, client development skills, and community service education. International Business students in JAMK also conduct and publish research on the game’s development and implementation.
– Our students are taught how to facilitate the game in schools, businesses and associations, says Crawford.
Meri Saarela, an International Business student and current project manager says the feedback from the youth has been great.
– Game facilitations thus far have shown that the Young New Horizons game does address many of the relevant issues and matters that youth face in their daily lives. The content of the game has been received extremely well also by the teachers and youth workers, and explorations are under way to expand the use of the product across the education and youth support communities.
The contents of the games are presented in Finnish and English simultaneously. Both games can be downloaded in PDF format and printed for free from JAMK's web pages. Games can also be purchased from the online store.
Further information:
Steven Crawford, Senior Lecturer
[email protected]
tel. +358 40 525 9912.
