About the project:

The project is focused on engaging young people in rethinking the future and building sustainable and modern European cities using the popular game Minecraft.

The project aims to empower young people to take an active role in designing and creating the cities of the future by leveraging the creative and educational potential of Minecraft. It also raises awareness among young people about the importance of sustainability and modernity in urban planning and development. MC-YOU presents a valuable opportunity for policymakers, offering an innovative method to involve youth in decision-making processes and allowing cities to benefit from the contributions of their younger citizens. By developing and testing a new youth-led policy model, MC-YOU leverages the creative and educational potential of Minecraft to involve young people in local political processes. This approach nurtures creativity and practical engagement among the youth while providing policymakers with sustainable strategies to incorporate youth perspectives into urban governance.

The consortium gathers 8 partners from Belgium, Portugal, Latvia, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Poland. The partners represent the following sectors: network organisations (OTB BE; UBC PL), municipalities (Faro PT, Riga LV, Sandanski BG), youth stakeholder organisations (YEPP DE/EU, CESIE IT) and small and medium-sized enterprise (LINK DMT s.r.l. IT, as the quality assurance partner in the project).

Project objectives are:

To raise awareness among young people about the importance of sustainable urban development. Over 400 young people will be included through face-to-face activities such as training, agoras, workshops, awards, policy consultations and conferences. Over 5000 young people will be reached online through seminars, educational toolkit, MC WEB and MC Metre.
To support the development of digital skills among young people (especially females) and encourage the use of technology in policy processes on the local level.
To encourage the involvement of a diverse group of young people with different backgrounds, promoting intercultural exchange and co-operation;
To create and test an innovative policy mechanism for young people to collaborate and participate with policymakers in creating innovative responses to global challenges; MC Agoras will be implemented with 320 participants. Policy consultations/adjustments will be made with 44 participants, resulting in the policy toolkit, disseminated to 200 practitioners (educators, trainers) and 200 policymakers online. Sustainability conferences will be executed with 300 participants; resulting in wider dissemination and sustainability of the project
To create and develop a Community of Practitioners gathering teachers, youth workers, IT specialists and policymakers working on digital transformation and participation; 80 practitioners will be involved face-to-face in the Community of practice activities.
To create a Capacity Building platform for the future for city administrators to learn from each other and implement proven youth policy mechanisms.

Project main outputs:

“Minecraft as a youthful Policy tool” – a digital publication in English featuring a collection of 8 best practices using Minecraft as a tool for youth participation from participating countries and other European countries and regions
“Resilient Cities Toolkit” – a digital publication available in English, Latvian, Portuguese, and Bulgarian
MC WEB and MC Metre – a website with an integrated survey tool, available in partner languages: English, Latvian, Portuguese, Bulgarian
Policy T-kit for Cities – a digital document in English incorporating methodologies and tools for policymakers on how to incorporate the MC-YOU model into city policy processes and thus increase the participation of youth in developing resilience in cities by enhancing the sustainability performance

Thematic areas:

Youth and community empowerment
Media Literacy
Advocacy
Climate Action
Social Development Goals

To learn more about the project and related topics, explore the following website: http://mc-you.eu/

Project results

MC-YOU PUBLICATION: Minecraft as a youthful Policy tool
The aim of this publication is to present some good practices of how Minecraft was used in meaningful youth participation. The collection gives the possibility to get inspired and learn from various ways of using Minecraft in creative ways of youth participation throughout Europe. The focus is city planning and spatial design. The ten examples span diverse Minecraft projects that were conducted in 21 different places, spanning 18 different European countries. The description of each of the examples indicates the timeline, participants, goals, organizations and cities, methodology, the exact implementation of Minecraft as well as comments and links. The collection helps to give an overview of what is already there, how it was done and can help us in the Minecraft as a Youthful Policy Tool [MC-YOU] project to get inspired, learn and build upon the previous experiences made.
File size: 4 MB
MC-YOU PUBLICATION: Resilient Cities Toolkit
The MC-YOU project aims to engage young people in the process of thinking about their cities and reimagining them to be more sustainable and resilient, by using the popular game Minecraft as a tool for youth participation at the local level. MC-YOU is also an opportunity for policymakers as it offers an innovative proposal to engage youth in decision-making processes, and an opportunity for the cities themselves to benefit from the valuable contributions of their younger citizens. This Toolkit is meant for: • Young people eager to contribute to more sustainable and resilient cities; • Policymakers that wish to leverage the power of youth participation in their cities and benefit from the valuable insights that young people have to offer; • Youth organisations, teachers, educators, and others working with young people, wishing to act as process facilitators between young people and policymakers in their cities.
File size: 2 MB
MC-YOU PUBLICATION: Policy Toolkit for Cities
This publications comprises all lessons learned by the partners and was delepoled for policymakers on how to incorporate the MC-YOU model into city policy processes and thus increase the participation of youth in developing resilience in cities by enhancing the sustainability performances. It provides an overview of the project and its objectives, includes a review of European policies on the issue of youth activation and participation in developing urban policies, pointing to gamification as a means to improve it and provides an overview of the experience from pilot cities (Faro, Portugal; Sandanski, Bulgaria and Riga Latvia) for its utilisation and adaptation by other cities. The toolkit is intended for: Cities that are eager to include young people in creating more sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Policymakers who wish to leverage the power of youth participation in their cities and benefit from the valuable insights that young people have to offer and Municipalities that wish to make their youth feel heard, included, and responsive to their needs, and to provide a sense of responsibility.
File size: 937 KB

*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 European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.