ActiveGames4Change

Among the young people detained in custodial settings the following adverse background factors predominate: poverty, social disadvantage, family dysfunction, low self-esteem, truancy, poor educational attainment.

The project seeks to address the disparities in learning outcomes of this vulnerable and disadvantaged group (young offenders in custody or under community supervision) by developing innovative methods using sports to foster inclusive education in the correctional and juvenile justice systems.

Thus, including sports in education also serves as an added value of having a recreational component within the prison system, that may offer some positive therapeutic results. In fact, “sports interventions (within prison settings), particularly young offenders’ institutions, can provide young people with a feeling of purpose, and a way of socialising with friends in a more positive way, (which) can also reduce recidivism rates as (they) may be more likely to find employment upon release” (Richardson, Cameron, & Berlouis, 2017, p. 42).

ActiveGames4Change – Sport and Physical Activity learning environment for citizenship, emotional, social and e-competences training project aims to support young offenders ((in custody and under community supervision) in the acquisition and usage of key competences to facilitate inclusion, education and employability by developing an innovative framework of learning environments and materials. Such will be achieved by creating and implementing innovative methods to foster inclusive education in the correctional and juvenile justice systems.

Specific goals include:

1. Improve the quality and level of attractiveness of educational training for youth in custody by developing a more attractive learning environment using sports and physical activity;
2. Increase the level of social inclusion and employability of young offenders by introducing key competences (social, emotional and e-skills) and active citizenship values in their training program through ActiveGames4Change Method;
3. Improve the social and citizenship literacy by transferring, adapting and validating guidelines, methodology as well as exercises and training materials necessary to introduce the concept of “ActiveGames4Change” in juvenile (re)education centres;
4. Improve skills, including social and civic participation and e-skills, acquired through non-formal and informal learning, particularly those related to the need of continuous self-learning, readiness for the new IT related jobs, and developing digital talents (The e-Skills Manifesto for 2014, EC).

Further information you can find here: https://www.activegames4change.org/