Democracy places high demands on citizens. Political decisions have an impact on many different areas of life, they often affect future generations or neighbouring countries and they are influenced by international and global developments. One sixth of the world’s population is young and the importance of youth participation for the future of economic, societal and political development is widely acknowledged. Democracy education enables young people to recognize and represent their interests, to participate in political processes and, in doing so, to meet their fellow human beings and their concerns with respect. The project DEMOGAMES is based on the didactic approach of game-based learning and applies it to teaching young citizens on democracy. Mediated knowledge on democratic processes, norms and values often remains abstract. In contrast, highly complex facts can be conveyed in an activating, participative and engaging manner through game based learning. With the project proposed here, several game based learning tools will be designed and later on applied in promoting democracy education in youth work and non-formal education with the main purpose to engage, connect and empower young people. We are confident that democracy education can lead to greater understanding of democratic processes, norms, and values and increase the ability of young people to effectively participate in society and political life.DEMOGAMES will advance democracy education with respect to learning about, through and for democracy. Our objectives are to introduce young citizens to the topic of democracy in an engaging and participative way by playing analog and digital games. The active participation in playful units awakens young citizens’ interest in the subject and promotes experiential learning. The project includes several activities for young people and practitioners in youth work and non-formal education to engage in discussions on democracy related topics beyond their local, regional or national experience.

"After over twenty years of justified -but almost exclusive- insistence in making education outcomes closer to labour market needs, the current context of growing distrust in political authorities and social disharmony in Europe have brought back the attention of policy makers to the need of cultivating social, citizenship and democratic culture learning outcomes in school education and adult learning. In parallel, the covid outbreak evidenced the need to adapt and renew way of teaching and learning, by embracing the development of new communication and information technologies. The Peace Games consortium aims to contribute to the development of citizenship, democratic and social competences by using the full potential of creativity through game-based learning in formal and informal learning. Creativity stands at the core of this project as it is considered both as a way to acquire civic and social key competences, and as a competence to acquire and develop in itself via the use and the development of ""self-made"" games oriented toward Peace Education. The project aimes at diffusing these competences in learners and at helping teachers to make good educational use of games. This is organised through the identification, assessment and support to the use of relevant games (online or in face-to-face) oriented to civic competences, intercultural communication and conflict transformation already existing and provide guidelines and advices for the development of new ""self-made"" games relevant for particular contexts.This project is building on the results of several projects in ERASMUS + which have reviewed good practices and developed competence frameworks for learners and educators aimed at bringing peace, conflict transformation, citizenship education, democratic values and respect for diversity at the centre of daily school practice.¨Peace Games"" originated within the Laboratory for Education Inspiring Peace (EIP Lab) created in Sanremo by the UPPER Project (ERASMUS +), responds to the need of offering advice and orientation to the education community and to individual learners, by developing a structured review of existing games, based on a qualified analysis of learning objectives achievable, and a community hub to engage on peace-oriented online and offline games.2. Objectives and main activities:To explore, analyse and classify the available supply of peace-oriented games on the basis of their relevance to the most pertinent competence frameworks that are actually developed and tested internationally, e.g. the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) of the Council of Europe, the Framework of Teachers Competence in Peace Education of the UPPER Eramus + project (http://eiplab.eu/upper-project), the European Curriculum on Nonviolent Conflict Transformation (NVCT) developed by the EduCATe Project (ERASMUS+);To identify, through a substantial mapping exercise based on the competence frameworks, existing gaps and engage the game developers community in the creation of new games addressing the identified gaps, also using existing sets of peace exercises that have not yet taken a game configuration;To develop an online hub able to provide information, advice and support to education institutions and educators who are interested to use the potential of games to achieve learning outcomes in these competence areas and engage “indie game development communities” in the creation of new games (e.g. through “thematic game jams” days with young designers, game developing starts up, school teams, etc.);To test and validate the use of the online hub and available games in ten pilot schools in five countries and, on a voluntary base, in other local communities and civil society organisations engaged in citizenship education;To develop and validate a Guide on “How to use, adopt and adapt game-based learning in traditional education settings ”To provide guidance and a collaborative context to individual learners who are already engaged in online games and might discover the interest and life-relevance of peace-oriented games;To draw lessons from the review and the online hub activities in order to feed the present education policy debate on citizenship and peace education.In order to achieve the project objectives there is a need to bring together complementary expertise existing in different organisations and different countries; the members of the consortium presenting the proposal have been chosen on the basis of their relevant experience and all have successfully run networking, dissemination and valorization actions in the past. We believe that this consortium represents a network of experts in peace education, games and innovation projects in Europe and, as such, is in a unique position to create consistent impact and sustainable results based on the project's outcomes."