Smart for Democracy and Diversity (SDD) Final Event
The Smart for Democracy and Diversity (SDD) consortium is happy to invite you to the project’s final event in Brussels. During the event which will take place on the morning of the 15th of June 2023, we will present the outcomes of the 3-year project: an interactive game and EU policy recommendations, including good practices at national level. The event is going to be both in-person in Brussels and online, via Zoom.
The interactive game presents the perspectives and experiences of people at risk of discrimination, including ageism, racism, and sexism and invites players to reflect on their own unconscious bias. The game is an original way to discuss the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that some marginalised people face in their everyday life.
We will also present EU and national policy recommendations that we drafted jointly with our partners. This will be the opportunity to address EU policymakers and other organisations.
Rationale
The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities (Treaty on European Union, Article 2, 2012, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:2bf140bf-a3f8-4ab2-b506-fd71826e6da6.0023.02/DOC_1&format=PDF).
However, democracy in the European Union (EU) faces many challenges and is regularly undermined in various areas of public life such as in political debates and (social) media. Nowadays, many European citizens experience discrimination due to their skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, ethnicity, or age. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), in 2019, 7,278 hate crime attacks were reported in the EU with almost half of them (3,026) being related to racism and xenophobia (OSCE, 2019, https://hatecrime.osce.org/infocus/2019-hate-crime-data-now-available). The SDD project aims to raise awareness on how multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination such as racism, sexism, sexual orientation and ageism shape people’s lived experiences and lives.
The SDD project is a free learning offer designed for learners in adult education. At the centre of the project is a digital learning platform with an interactive game. The game presents the perspectives and experiences of people at risk of discrimination, including racism, sexism, and prejudices against ethnic minorities. Based on the development of empathy as a way to better understand what it means to face multiple forms of discrimination, it promotes equality, social integration, diversity and non-discrimination through an accessible digital learning approach.
The SDD project is one of a series of digital learning games, designed by the partners, that have been developed on various topics. It provides a learning platform that combines digital learning and learning settings in workshops. The approach of this project is to design interesting and low threshold offers for adult education to make the complex topic more accessible.
This event will aim to present the SDD game and discuss how digital learning offers can be useful tools in raising awareness on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and putting a spotlight on important social discussions in democratic societies.
It will also be the opportunity to present EU policy recommendations that partners drafted, including best practices at national level.
Interested in learning more about the game and discuss the issues of discrimination in Europe?
Join us!
In-person: Interoffices, avenue des Arts 56, 1000 Brussels.
Remotely: online via Zoom
Date: Thursday, 15 June, 2023 – 09:30 to 12:30
Registration: If you are interested, you can register here.
We are looking forward to seeing many of you there!
Agenda
Useful links
- Website of the SDD project: https://sdd-game.eu.
- Fighting racism and hate speech: recommendations for political decision-makers, associations and lobby-groups.
- Publication: download the project Compendium “Experiencing Hate Speech Responses, Coping Strategies & Interventions“. The publication is also available in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese.
For more information, you can contact Apolline Parel (AGE Platform Europe) at apolline.parel@age-platform.eu.