The project Bridge is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Servicio Espanol para la Internacionalizacion de la Educacion (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the National Agency SEPIE can be held responsible for them. -- Number: 2025-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000359236 --
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BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.6. Deficits in democratic participation, representation and inclusive governance
Many young people feel distant from traditional forums of political participation and experience democracy as abstract theory without real impact on their lives. Existing participation structures are often formal and carry little weight, and underrepresented groups remain absent from decision-making bodies. Civic education needs tools that make democratic competences tangible and practised.
DEMOGAMES developed the Democracy Game Box: eight print-and-play games (two with digital versions) built on the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. A Facilitator's Manual, a six-module MOOC and a four-day Training-of-Trainers curriculum support youth workers and teachers. Each session follows input, gameplay and debriefing.
DEMOGAMES (2019–2022) is an Erasmus+ partnership of six organisations led by GIGA (Hamburg) that created game-based learning tools for democratic education with young adults (18 to 25, adaptable from 16). Its core output, the Democracy Game Box, contains eight games such as Deckmocracy, Demodice, Draw The Line and Utopia, all grounded in the Council of Europe's RFCDC. A Facilitator's Manual, a MOOC and a Training-of-Trainers curriculum support teachers and youth workers. Materials are published under Creative Commons licences in six languages.
Young people increasingly disengage from traditional democratic forums and perceive politics as abstract and remote. Participation structures in education tend to be procedural and carry little influence, and the growing diversity of the student body is not mirrored in decision-making bodies. Civic education often stays at the level of knowledge transfer without giving learners practice in democratic action.
Democracy depends on citizens who can listen, cooperate, handle ambiguity and weigh competing interests. If young people do not experience effective participation early, representation gaps and distrust persist. Moving from formal to effective participation requires practised competences as well as factual knowledge.
DEMOGAMES addresses Challenge A6 (deficits in democratic participation, representation and inclusive governance) by training democratic competences through play. Games such as Utopia and Participedia let learners experiment with inclusive decision-making; Draw The Line and Demodice make inclusion, exclusion and power relations discussable.
Facilitators choose a game from the Democracy Game Box and run a three-phase session: input, gameplay and debriefing. The Facilitator's Manual provides ready-to-use session plans; the MOOC explains the RFCDC and each game; the Training-of-Trainers curriculum prepares multipliers in a four-day workshop. Players co-create cards and symbols, and Creative Commons licences allow local adaptation of every game.
Democracy Game Box (D-Box): eight print-and-play games on democratic culture
Interactive game
The Democracy Game Box is a compendium of eight analogue games, two of which also exist in digital form (the Demodice app for iOS and Android, and a web version of Observers). The games are: Competence Card Game (cooperative storytelling on the 20 RFCDC competences), Deckmocracy (how political and social events shape the history of democracies), Demodice (dice with symbols for stories and reflection on democratic culture), Fake Expert (social deduction in a talk-show setting), Draw The Line (boundaries, competition and cooperation), Observers (puzzle game with real stories), Participedia (global democratic innovations linked to Participedia.net) and Utopia (building a democracy and managing value dilemmas). Aimed at young adults aged 18 to 25 and adaptable for players from 16 upwards, all games are published under Creative Commons licences and available in six languages.
Teaching staff, Students, Professionals, General Public
DEMOGAMES Facilitator's Manual (2022)
Manual
The Facilitator's Manual is the central methodological document of the package, aimed at professionals in formal and non-formal education. It combines political theory on democracy with principles of non-formal, experiential education and explains the three-phase session structure of input, gameplay and debriefing. For each game in the Democracy Game Box it provides a detailed guide, including the competences addressed, group size, time and materials, as well as debriefing questions that connect the game experience with participants' social and personal reality. Ready-to-use session plans allow facilitators to start without prior preparation, while advice on handling conflict and promoting analytical thinking supports less experienced educators. The manual is published as a PDF under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence and may be adapted and redistributed under the same terms.
Teaching staff, Professionals
DEMOGAMES MOOC: six video modules on democratic competences and game facilitation
Online training
The MOOC consists of six instructional video modules linked from the project portal. It provides the theoretical background on the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and on game-based learning as a method for democratic education, followed by practical tutorials on how to set up, facilitate and debrief each of the games in the Democracy Game Box. The course addresses both facilitators preparing a session and players who want to understand the competences behind the games. Together with the Facilitator's Manual it allows teachers and youth workers to prepare a session without support from the original consortium. The video modules are hosted on a freely accessible YouTube channel linked from the portal.
Teaching staff, Students, Professionals
Training of Trainers (ToT) Curriculum: guide for a four-day workshop
Teaching guide
The Training-of-Trainers curriculum is a detailed guide for an intensive four-day workshop that prepares youth workers and teachers to use the DEMOGAMES tools systematically. It covers the RFCDC competence model, game-based and experiential learning, the facilitation of each game and the design of debriefing phases. The curriculum was piloted and evaluated in spring 2022 in Timisoara, Romania, with almost 40 experts and youth workers before publication. It is the basis of the project's multiplier strategy. The Swiss 'Democracy multiplied' initiative, for example, trained seven young facilitators who now run workshops in their own communities, and Radboud University uses the materials to train social sciences teachers in the Netherlands.
Teaching staff, Professionals