MCYOU – Minecrafting resilient Cities: innovative YOUthled Policy process for sustainable Europe

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Engaging young people in rethinking the future and building sustainable and modern European cities using the popular game Minecraft, through which one can contribute to models of participation from below, which have to be sustainable and transferable.

Context

European societies are going through a period of systematic rapid changes, which need to be addressed through specific needs and complex challenges. For example, European countries urge to invest on resilient cities, which therefore can respond to the Climate Crisis, manage Rapid Urbanization, ensure Economic Stability and strive for Social Equity. The difficulty in creating this type of management of urban spaces certainly goes hand in hand with the lack of Innovative Participatory Models young citizens find interesting and that allow them to actively contribute to the public life of cities.

The project empowers young individuals to take an active role in designing and creating cities of the future by exploiting the creative and educational potential of Minecraft, raising young people’s awareness of the importance of sustainability and modernity in urban planning and development.

Objectives

  • To raise awareness among young people about the importance of sustainable urban development;
  • To support the development of digital skills among young people (especially females) and encourage the use of technology in policy processes on the local level;
  • To encourage the involvement of a diverse group of young people with different backgrounds, promoting intercultural exchange and cooperation;
  • To create and test an innovative policy mechanism for young people to collaborate and participate with policymakers in creating innovative responses to global challenges;
  • To create and develop a Community of Practitioners gathering teachers, youth workers, IT specialists and policymakers working on digital transformation and participation;
  • To create a Capacity Building platform for the future for city administrators to learn from each other and implement proven youth policy mechanisms.

Activities

  • One-day seminar for the cities to exchange practices on participatory processes and digital participation and embark on a planning stage for the future capacity building;
  • Local meetings testing the viability of the project involving 75 young people (25 per city);
  • Training on project activities involving 15 policymakers;
  • MC Agora: Young multipliers will hold public hearings with citizens presenting the aspects of resilient cities and use the Minecraft in the process, 100 participants per city.

Resources

  • “Minecraft as a youthful Policy tool”: a collection of 8 most promising practices of Minecraft as a useful tool for Youth Participation;
  • “Resilient Cities” Toolkit Development: educational toolkit for young people and policymakers;
  • “Policy Toolkit” for Cities: methodologies and tools for policymakers on how to incorporate the MC-YOU model into city policy processes.

Impact

Quantitative:

  • Number of trainings/capacity building: 3 trainings + 2 pilot phases (workshops);
  • Number of young people, youth stakeholders, policymakers and the general public involved in activities face-to-face: 1260;
  • Number of young people, youth stakeholders, policymakers and general public reached online – 13040;
  • Number of new municipalities implementing the MC-YOU (or adapted) model: at least 15;
  • The number of youth engagement in city planning initiatives increased by 20%.

Qualitative:

  • 75% positive evaluation (stakeholders finding the project and updated research relevant, transferable and sustainable);
  • 75% positive evaluation (the staff finding the purchases relevant, transferable, contributing to ease of teaching and day-to-day operation of the MC model as well as sustainable);
  • 75% satisfaction of respondents finding the published materials relevant, useful, transferable and sustainable).

Partners

The project

MCYOU – Minecrafting resilient Cities: innovative YOUthled Policy process for sustainable Europe

Project number

2023-1-ES02-KA220-000154658

Implementation date

01/12/2023 – 30/11/2025

Fundings

ERASMUS-YOUTH-2023-PCOOP-ENGO

Categories

Units

Info & contacts

E-mail

giuseppe.romeo@cesie.org

Website

https://www.mc-you.eu/

Follow the project in action

CESIE ETS