About us

Game Changer is a European Union grant funded project that ultimately provides training tools, field expert support and guidance to NGOs and aspiring young leaders (or Ambassadors of Change). Trainings will teach Ambassadors of Change how to lead their own social media campaigns and teach NGOs how to provide support and guidance through the process. Another element of Game Changer involves the element of offline City Social Games, which will promote tolerance, civic engagement, diversity and inclusion through gamification.

Game Changer NGO partners and field experts will monitor, provide guidance and continued training to the Ambassadors of Change during their campaigns to ensure effectiveness and more importantly to listen to the questions, comments and concerns they may have. This will provide continued learning for both project partners and Ambassadors of Change. Our training tools will teach aspiring Ambassadors of Change how to lead their own effective social media campaigns. This toolkit will also provide expertise to interested NGOs and activists interested in identifying more young people to conduct such campaigns.

Game Changer will begin its focus in France, and Poland; eventually expanding to 8 countries in total across Europe. From these initial campaigns; successes and failures will be analyzed and disseminated, which will hopefully allow for scale to reach more young people, NGOs doing similar work, field experts and academia across Europe.

The project is a partnership between youth and NGOs focused on addressing tolerance, open-mindedness, civic engagement and radical ideology and behavior, technology experts, media specialists, academia and youth activists.

Greece

Impact Hub Athens and Logou Paignion are encouraging young people to think critically about potential politically motivated narratives in hopes these youth will engage more actively in society and think positively about diversity. Through online campaigns, these two NGOs from Athens aim to address an increased feeling of homophobia among young people in Greece. Their campaigns will also encourage young people to act and speak out against discrimination of all types.

France

L’association Artemis is running campaigns aiming to encourage young people in Paris from differing social and religious backgrounds to interact with, understand and accept one another. Artemis is developing campaigns to help young people identify and counter hate speech and explore sensitive issues from a variety of perspectives/lenses.

Poland

Civis Polonus works with secondary school students to counter bullying and aggressive behavior. Its' campaigns within Game Changer aim to encourage compassion and understanding for non-conforming or marginalized young people. The campaigns seek to build a sense of inclusion and increase the respect and support given to marginalized young people by both peers and adults.

Project leader:

TechSoup Europe

TechSoup Europe is the coordinating partner of the Game Changer project.

As part of the TechSoup Global Network, TechSoup Europe equips changemakers with the transformative technology solutions and skills they need to improve lives globally and locally. TechSoup Europe is a leader in providing technological solutions to support civil society. It helps nonprofits and local organisations in 48 European countries to use technology to maximise the impact of their campaigns for the public benefit.

Project partners:

Explore IT

Explore IT is responsible for developing the project’s interactive city game, which can be used by NGOs across Europe to engage young people in local issues.

Explore IT is an academic start-up of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (P-JAIT) created to support the software development within several innovative projects conducted by the Academy. Since its inception in the year 2015, the company has realized projects in such areas as motivation systems and platforms, technologies supporting the city games creation and educational platforms.

RNTC

RNTC is responsible for developing the training and evaluation materials to run online campaigns.

RNTC was set up in 1968 as a joint initiative of RNW Media (formerly Radio Netherlands Worldwide) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the past 50 years, RNTC has gained invaluable expertise in delivering courses to media professionals around the world, and in the role media can play in society, especially in the developing world and countries in transition. RNTC provides training for media professionals from all over the world: from journalists and programme-makers to social activists and communications professionals from non-governmental organisations.

Artemis

L’association Artemis is leading the project's campaigns in France.

L’association Artemis is a Paris-based NGO which takes a multidisciplinary approach to tackling radicalization. It advocates the use of mediation as a response to radicalisation. It develops and runs educational projects to foster dialogue between cultures, fight prejudice, promote the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the principle of secularism, and deconstruct conspiracy theories. Artemis provides support to those seeking to break away from a radicalizing environment. More than 6000 people have already benefitted from training courses run by Artemis across the country.

Logou Paignion

Logou Paignion is co-leading the project’s campaigns in Greece.

Logou Paignion (Λόγου Παίγνιον) is an urban, non-profit organization based in Athens, Greece, which offers cultural education services through the design and implementation of educational programmes aimed at audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The two traits of its identity, “λόγος” (meaning reason or mental world) and “παιχνίδι” (meaning game), capture its philosophy and mission: it seeks to develop the target audiences' mental world through play-based activities.

Impact Hub Athens

Impact Hub is co-leading the project’s campaigns in Greece.

Impact Hub Athens builds communities for impact. It promotes, enables and accelerates social innovation by providing business incubation, co-working and events space, along with accessible services to anyone committed to developing sustainable solutions for social and environmental issues. We are part of a global network of 120+ Impact Hubs and host 600 members in Greece. We develop programs around critical social issues focusing on tech for good, activism, circular economy & urbanism. We facilitate the inclusion of vulnerable groups, access to work, empowerment & civic engagement.

Civis Polonus

Civis Polonus is leading the project's campaigns in Poland.

Civis Polonus is a Warsaw-based NGO that helps to develop civic awareness and enable individuals to participate fully in public life. Its activities are based on the principle that a good state must be formed from a community of engaged, committed citizens, who know their rights and how to use them. Civis Polonus promotes this goal through a variety of activities to develop social competencies of individuals, encourage cooperation with others, and to take responsibility for public affairs. The NGO works with representatives of public authorities to create mechanisms for citizens to participate in decision-making processes. Civis Polonus also develops programmes of active civic education in schools and municipalities.

Contact us:

Aaron Mizak
Community Builder and Communication Specialist
TechSoup Europe
amizak@techsoup.org