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The E-Sports Co-Creator
The E-Sports Co-Creator
Content
This activity is inspired by the city Games Amsterdam concept, which uses co-creation to empower young people.
It invites you to partner with young people to design and organise a community e-sports event, from the initial idea to a full-scale festival. This is your chance to use a co-creative approach to empower youth leadership and create a positive and secure online environment, guided by the perspectives and talents of the young people you serve.
The Challenge
While the digital world offers endless opportunities for connection and gaming, it also presents risks like misinformation, cyberbullying, and a lack of secure spaces for young people to be themselves. The challenge is not just to protect young people, but to empower them to build and manage the kind of vibrant, safe online and offline communities they want, using their passion for gaming and e-sports as the driving force.
Get Inspired
Ready to make a real difference in your community? Youth empowerment isn't just a buzzword; it's a way to help young people build a more secure and independent future. By connecting them with the right resources, you can empower them to navigate complex digital systems, recognise misinformation, and become confident citizens in a digital world. This is your chance to become a vital link in a city-wide network and help young people take ownership of their digital future, one project at a time.
In the video below, a youth worker from Stichting Dock, Marco de Haas, discusses how City Games Amsterdam applies a co-creative approach to digital youth work. He shares his experiences with the project and explains how the vision of building a digital safe space for young people through e-sports came to life.
The Opportunity
Youth workers are crucial in bridging the gap between young people's passion and the tools they need to succeed. By enhancing your own skills in guiding and facilitating, you can:
- Identify young people who are passionate about gaming and help them transform their ideas into action.
- Connect them to valuable resources, like workshops on setting up Discord servers for community management, training in live-streaming and video editing, or courses on engaging with potential sponsors. You can even encourage them to do a 'stress test' by giving them more difficult tasks to challenge them and see if they are underrated and need more responsibility.
- Collaborate with a wider network of experts and organisations to create a stronger support system for youth-led initiatives.
- Empower young people to become critical, confident, and independent digital citizens.
Take action: activities for different roles
Explore the following role-specific badges to access activities designed to enhance your digital youth work within the organisation. Each badge contains a series of clear, actionable tasks tailored to your role.
- Youth workers can earn the E-Sports Facilitator badge to get hands-on experience in empowering young people to take the lead.
- Managers can earn the Strategic Network Weaver badge to develop and implement a strategic plan for fostering youth empowerment across the organisation.
- Young people can earn the E-Sports Event Organiser badge to build their own skills and gain confidence in a practical way.
Your Mission: Become a Co-Creator of City Games
This activity will guide you through practical steps to empower young people in your community to thrive in the digital age by creating an e-sports event with them.
Phase 1: Understanding the Landscape (Preparation)
1. Review the Context: Use the provided video and your own observations to understand the challenges young people face with digital skills and the need for new, co-created solutions.
2. Identify Local Resources and Experts: Research various organisations in your area that focus on digital skills or youth support. This includes not only other youth work organisations, but also:
- Well-being and community centres: They often have programmes that address digital literacy as part of broader social support.
- Schools and vocational training centres: These institutions may offer courses or resources focused on practical digital skills for future employment.
- Tech companies or startups: Some companies, especially those that offer refurbished devices or digital training, may have social responsibility programmes that could be a great resource.
- Experts and foundations: Look for local experts or foundations dedicated to media literacy, cybersecurity, or digital well-being.
3. Assess Youth Needs: Reflect on the young people you work with. Have you noticed any struggles they have with digital tasks? Consider issues like applying for jobs online, understanding government letters, or managing personal finances digitally.
Phase 2: Taking Action (Implementation)
1. Initiate Contact: Reach out to a potential partner—whether it's a local community centre, a tech company, or another relevant organisation. Schedule a meeting to discuss their youth empowerment efforts and how you can collaborate. Be prepared to share insights on the specific digital challenges you've observed.
2. Plan a Collaborative Activity: Work with your partner(s) to plan a small, targeted activity for young people. This could be:
- A joint workshop on a specific digital skill (e.g., 'Navigating Government Websites' or 'Spotting Misinformation Online').
- A regular 'digital help desk' session in your youth centre, with support from a partner organisation's staff.
- Organising a visit for a group of young people to a relevant partner organisation to explore their digital resources.
3. Implement and Support: Execute your planned activity. Actively support the young people involved, helping them engage with the content and address their specific digital questions.
Phase 3: Reflecting and Growing (Impact & Learning)
1. Gather Feedback: After the activity, collect feedback from the participating young people. You could use simple questionnaires, informal interviews, or group discussions. Ask about what they learned, how it helped them, and what digital challenges they still face.
2. Evaluate Impact: Reflect on the success of your collaboration and the impact on the young people. Did their digital confidence or skills improve? Did they access new resources? How might this impact their ability to participate digitally?
3. Share Your Learnings: Share your experiences and findings with your colleagues and the partnering organisations. Discuss what went well, what challenges arose, and how future collaborations can be even more effective.
4. Consider Next Steps: Based on your experience, what are the next steps for you as a co-creative community builder? Are there other skills you want to develop, or new partnerships you want to explore?
Who created this resource?
This approach to youth empowerment in youth work is inspired by City Games Amsterdam and adapted by the Dutch Cities of Learning Network.
Next steps:
Try this approach in your own youth work setting. Start by earning the badges in this activity. Then, explore more resources on youth empowerment at https://www.digitalyouthwork.net/.
Resources
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Tasks
Task no.1
Issued by organiser or scanning QR code
Participate in activity
Organisers
Digital Youth Work Resource Hub
Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
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