Youngsters as refugees

“If there are more questions at the end of a workshop than at the beginning, it was a success!” If that statement is anything to go by, the opening event of the modular format “EU simulation game/workshop on flight and asylum” for young people of 15 and above was a resounding success. The workshop, which we had developed in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, inspired participants to keep digging deeper and thereby becoming more and more involved with the topic.

This is also, of course, owed to the nature of the topic of flight, asylum and integration: Where to begin, where to end? These were questions we asked at the beginning of the development stage. Our solution was to create seven modules that can be combined in a number of different ways. They range from insights into actual flight situations to short simulation games and discussion panels with refugees. During its premiere, the modular system proved just the right approach. At the Berlin HQ of Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 100 school kids spent two day just before the summer break experiencing all kinds of things, but not boredom.

As from the beginning of the coming school year, interested teachers in Berlin can book the modular education package at Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Contact Yvonne Lehmann). Bearing the title “On the run – why, where from, now what?“ the modules are also available from planpolitik. Do not hesitate to ask!

Process optimisation in the emergency shelter Tempelhof

Refugees living in emergency shelters should be able to move on to more appropriate accommodation as soon as possible. But what if, like in the terminal building of Berlin’s former airport at Tempelhof, they have been living there for nine months – without any prospect of moving any time soon? In such situations, it is vital to establish long-term structures that connect refugees with their local environment, e.g. for leisure, work or advice. On commission from the Tempelhof site’s operator Tamaja GmbH the consultancy agancy trialog has been developing such structures since the beginning of this year. One result of our continuous exchange with the agency was the development of a concept and a two-day interactive workshop for shelter workers, addressing the integration of the structures into the work processes and optimisation of communication between the different departments. The climax was marked by the simulation game “Honour or Anger – volunteers in refugee aid”, a lively and in parts slightly exaggerated simulation of working with refugees and people who’ve volunteered to help. It became clear that this line of work places very special demands on the shelter’s social teams and those who coordinate volunteers. But we are confident that the networking strategy developed by trialog will help everyday procedures in the shelter and benefit the refugees.

Digesting Brexit in Brussels

Brussels, June 2015 – it seems like an eternity since master students from the Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE) simulated Grexit negotiations in a planpolitik game that at the time was up to date on most recent events. The Greek exit was averted both in the game and in reality. As we all know, this cannot be said about Brexit. Accordingly, the concluding Brussels summit in this year’s blended simulation game “The future of the European Union”, taking place after a four-week online phase, was completely defined by the decision that just one day earlier had shaken Europe and the rest of the world.

At the beginning, the two students whose roles were representing the United Kingdom were given the opportunity to say a few parting words, followed by a rather cold request to leave the conference room. Since, with us, it’s still all just a game, the two then proceeded to take over the press work, producing some rather fiery interviews. Another unusual point in the schedule was a two-hour interruption to the game. Running simultaneously to the simulation game was the CIFE alumni meeting, during which three British politicians, Paul Adamson, Sir Graham Watson and Mark Watts were scheduled to discuss Brexit. And discuss they did, in a very British style: polite, eloquent and full of sarcastic wit, they made daring predictions for the future, including visions of the end of the United Kingdom and an impending revolution. Given this outlook we are curious as to whose exit we shall be discussing in June 2017…

Simulation game on international terrorism

Peace in the fictional state of Fontania is under threat from two different terrorist organisations. But the regime itself is doing its best to destabilise the situation, the neighbouring states are not always playing a positive role, either, and a fictional version of the EU is trying to reach a common position. The participants taking on the roles were part of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Young Leaders for Europe programme, for which the game was developed.

As is often the case with our fictional simulation games, the scenario is based on real conflicts. The situation in Syria and Iraq were the starting point, and the Kurdish conflict as well as the threat posed by extreme terrorist organisations such as IS all came into the mix. Unsurprisingly, the participants discovered many parallels to the real world of today. The EU’s role is also shown in a critical way. On the international stage, it can only play an effective role if it has a unified voice. The negotiations revealed just how difficult it is to achieve such a common stance, given widely differing foreign policy interests and domestic constraints. Furthermore, the participation of international super powers did not exactly prove conducive to a more target-oriented approach during talks about peace in Fontania. On the contrary: as the former “Fontanian President” remarked during evaluation, a wide variety of issues had been discussed, none of which had primarily been concerned with the actual situation in “his” country. A realistic if rather bleak assessment.

planpolitik discovers the Caucasus

Georgia and Armenia – finally, once more a part of the world we had never been to before. Our drive from Tbilisi to Yerewan took us through the Southern Caucasus all the way to the foothills of Mount Ararat and will surely go down in memory as the most exciting part of the trip – including breathtaking landscapes and the first border crossing on foot in the history of planpolitik. Both countries and both cities are well worth a visit.

Add to that two especially successful events with multipliers who were partners of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Georgia and Armenia. The participants in Tbilisi were younger and less experienced but very interested in interactive methods. Meanwhile, in Yerewan, we worked with much more experienced and initially more skeptical participants – 23 women and 2 men. But it did not take long to convince them as well.

Over a period of six days we introduced more or less our entire catalogue of interactive methods and tested it with the participants. Apart from receiving very positive feedback on structure, content and facilitation, we have been particularly happy to learn that some of the participants went on to use our methods in their own events already. And rather successfully so, we hear. We guess one could call it sustainable training! If it were up to us, we’d be heading to the Caucasus again soon.