Two years of hard work, development of activities and resources, and transnational collaboration are coming to an end with the finalisation of the My Diversity, Our Strength project.
With the finalisation of “My Diversity, Our Strength” we want to take a look back at everything we have developed and created and the impact we have achieved.
First steps
Our project started with a survey among young people, aged 14 to 18, and a second questionnaire for youth workers. In total over 160 answers were collected, informing us on the skills, knowledge and resources that are needed for youth workers to make their practices and activities more interactive and engaging, as well as use new methods and approaches to learning.
Through the surveys we managed to build a basis of skills and competencies we wanted to support and foster among professionals to reach a more sustainable change in methodologies among youth workers with My Diversity, Our Strength.
We wanted to create long-lasting competencies with which the youth workers could develop, adapt and further improve their own exercises towards a more engaging and interactive outlook for learners.
This desire for a more comprehensive list of competencies to enhance, culminated in the creation of the Competency Framework, a detailed overview of 10 competence areas for youth workers that can support them in understanding what skills are necessary to become competent in developing engaging educational content.
The competence areas, among others, include: Communication skills, Empathy and sensitivity, Leadership, Enthusiasm for novelty, and more…
The Compass
Based on the framework and the surveys, we created our first major result, the Compass. Developed as a guidance document for youth workers, the Compass included more information on the benefits of using educational games and teamwork exercises for learning, as well as practical examples of activities to showcase how learning can be incorporated into games; and how they can be evaluated.
The Compass further included the Competence Framework itself, and provided 13 activities that youth workers could use and adapt for their own practices and to learn more about developing interactive exercises.
The Escape Box
Delving further into the methodology of educational games, the consortium developed the Escape Box, the core of the My Diversity, Our Strength project.
Designed to be used directly with young people, the Escape Box tells the story of a person having woken up without memories and needing to recover their past.
It provides five STEM-related puzzles and mysteries for learners to solve to reach the final box and recover the scientist’s memory.
The box was produced with durable materials, such as wood, and coated paper, as well as in an inspiring and colourful design, inviting the learners to touch and explore the materials and interact with them like a board game. Thus, increasing the retention of the learned content, increasing teamwork and engagement, and improving everyone’s willingness to participate. It further allowed partners to take the box to different locations for young people to experience the escape box.
Partners tested the box with over 160 young people, aged 12 to 30, receiving mostly positive feedback. The participants were highly engaged and gave suggestions for future improvement.
The final conferences
To showcase the impact and reach of the project, the partners held a transnational conference in English, online, providing information about My Diversity, Our Strength, the methodology and approach of the project, as well as the results and the major objectives of all involved parties.
Partners then held national events to allow for professionals who are more confident in their national languages or are not fluent in English, to discover the project and its possibilities.
Saying goodbye
As the project is coming to an end, the partners are preparing the organisational and management side of the project and are working on integrating the methods and materials developed into their future practices.
We are all proud to have been part of this project and having been able to develop new and engaging materials that were welcomed by young people in a very positive and motivated way.
Thank you for beeing part of the journey!
If you want to find out more about the project or the partners, visit the project website: https://mydiversity-ourstrength.eu/
There you can also find all the resources, materials, and news of the project, as well as the contact information of your closest national partner in case of questions.
