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We have to think of ways to use games not just to escape reality but to re-engage with reality. And I think that is the exciting things about the kind of work you are doing at Global Kids. It is both grounded in the virtual space and the real space. You are talking about real things, that touch real people. And you are asking people to bring what they learn here back into their own communities to make a difference. That is one of the reasons why I really believe in what Global Kids is trying to accomplish.

Henry Jenkins,
MIT Professor and Expert on Youth Media

 

 

Since 2002 Global Kids has been a leader in the use of online games to promote global awareness, engaged citizenship, and 21st Century Learning Skills. Through the Playing 4 Keeps program, Global Kids trains urban youth to develop games about important social and world issues. Global Kids played a founding role in the creation of Games For Change, which is committed to supporting individuals and organizations to use digital games for social change, and Global Kids advises other institutions, such as IBM, on the creation of games and games-based learning curricula. In addition, Global Kids, staff and students speak and write regularly about this work in academic, non-profit and philanthropic settings.

 
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This work has been recognized by New York 1, Voice of America, ABC News, Newsweek, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Marie Claire, Time Magazine, BusinessWeek, Congressional Quarterly, many blogs, and a host of other media venues. This work has been cited as a best practice within Henry Jenkins' report for the MacArthur Foundation: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century and Asia Society's Afterschool for the Global Age.

The program and the games produced have also been the recipient of a number of awards, including the first Games For Change "GaCha" award for the best Awareness-Raising Game and Salon.com's Best Social Awareness Game of 2007, and Playing 4 Keeps was recognized as an Adobe Youth Voices Project of Change.

Global Kids' gaming programs are made possible through the generous sponsorship of Microsoft's U.S. Partners in Learning Mid-Tier initiative, which funds "pockets of innovation" for increasing digital literacy and career readiness; the Surdna Foundation; and the AMD Foundation, and conducted in partnership with Gamelab, Digital Creations, UNICEF, and TakingITGlobal, In June, 2008, Playing For Keeps was the focus of an extensive ad campaign - which included print, video, and web initiatives - to promote the launch of the AMD Foundation's Changing the Game initiative.

The games and the after school component have been independently evaluated by the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology.

Playing for Keeps (P4K): Playing 4 Keeps (P4K) uses online games as a form of youth media informed by international issues.  Together with Gamelab, an independent game company, Global Kids developed an innovative curriculum for engaging youth in the design, development and dissemination of high quality games that have the potential to educate their peers around the world. During the past three years, activities have included the following:

2005-2006: Location: South Shore High School, Brooklyn. Game: Ayiti - The Cost of Life. Click here to read more.

2006-2007: Location: South Shore High School, Brooklyn. Game: CONSENT! Click here to read more.

2007-2008: Location: Canarsie High School, Brooklyn. Game: Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City. Click here to read more.

To view press and publications on Global Kids' P4k online games, please click here.

To download a fact sheet on our gaming programs, please click here.

Links to videos: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=holymeatballs+p4k&search_type=

Links to photos: http://flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/collections/72157600013321496/