8 May, 2019
Ljubljana

Representatives of the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., took part in the Mladinstival 2019.

Mladinstival is a central event in the European Youth Week 2019 in Slovenia. Topic of this years’ EYW is “Democracy and Me”. The message it conveys is that every day we have the opportunity to influence decisions that affect us all. Participating in elections (formal democracy), be it on a local, national or European level, is the most crucial reflection of democratic participation, but it’s by a long shot not the only one. What happens or goes on between the elections is just as important for functional democracy.

Programme of the Mladinstival 2019:

14:00 – 14:30: Presentation of the effects of the Erasmus+: Youth in Action on participation of youth (dr. Tomaž Deželan)

14:30 – 18:00 Choices of apocalypse – interactive learning experience of participation (The Young Republic)

Steady pace of life has been interrupted by an apocalyptic event. The world as we knew it, the one we lived and worked in, doesn’t exist any more. We’re left to our own devices. There are numerous others, who are willing to join powers to make survival easier. The question goes: on what conditions and with what intentions do they form consortium? This leads to the creation of the groups, whose goal is to make it to the special ship, which only has enough room for a limited number of people. The key to the ticket for survival is hidden in 30 challenges that the groups will have to complete. The winner will be the group which will gather the most points in these challenges.

Choices of Apocalypse is an interactive and participatory learning experience and one of the activities of the programme GAMIFY, which was developed by a youth organization The Young Republic from Sweden. It was established in the 2015 and deals with three areas: researchers, advocady and education. In the field of education they have developed various learning group experiences which are based on different scenarios that help teach about topics, connected with democracy and human rights. Democracy and participation are central topics of this year’s European Youth Week 2019 and we offer you a different experience of these topics.

Have you got what it takes to survive?

▶ What’s behind title Choices of Apocalypse?◀

The aim of the activity was to offer the participants, through experience-learning and play-based learning, special experience of getting to know concepts and dynamics in three different fields of our lives: democracy, discrimination and inequality and migrations. Attendants had to make decisions on how to solve the problems, based on the roles given to them and the relationship dynamics (individuals – members of the group). Limits or advantages that the given roles and situations pose, bring up situations that reflect reality of everyday lives in our society.

▶ Who was this activity for?◀

Everyone interested in the relationships and dynamics in the contemporary societies.

▶ Did participants take part in the activity as an individual or in the group? ◀

Participants were included in groups. Each group had 7 participants that were given certain roles. Distribution of groups and roles is random.

▶ What did the participants do? ◀
Choices of Apocalypse is based on 30 group challenges, which are very diverse. They range from looking for cases of discrimination on internet to making a 10 meter cape. All the challenges have one thing in common: participants had to coordinate how they decide to conduct them. Their decisions were influenced by the roles they were given, special tokens these individuals can use spend to receive more points for successful challenge, etc.

▶ Is there a winner at the end?

Yes and not just one. After 30 challenges there was a final winner group and individual winner. Not just one. For every single challenge group and individual got a certain numbert of points.

The Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is supported by: