- Audience
Members of a diverse community
- Game Goal
To teach participants how to apply problem-solving skills to real life community problems.
- Game Objectives
- Present the intricacies and dimensions of common conflict scenarios that occur in diverse communities.
- Motivate game participants to view conflict through the lens of other stakeholders.
- Encourage players to embrace the perspectives, rights, and needs of others in complex conflicts.
- Help players conceptualize what works and what does not work in the context of “building bridges” with opposing quarreling in diverse communities.
- Game Materials
- Large sheets of paper
- Colored markers, colored pens, and sticky notes
- Preparation for the Game
- Draw a fictional community with make-believe “spaces” for different stakeholders in the conflict.
- Introduce a fictional community conflict scenario involving multiple individuals or groups.
- Choose a scenario that reflects the values and constructs of pluralist societies (HOA, zoning, environment/pollution, noise ordinance)
- Playing the Game:
- Present the visual representation of the community and explain the conflict to the game participants.
- Identify the stakeholder groups involved in the conflict.
- Create separate groups that represent the interests of the fictional community. Possible stakeholders include HOA, small business owners, members of the township, the mayor, etc.
- Perspective Mapping
- Each stakeholder group is given a sheet of paper, markers, and pens to map out their part of the community. For instance, the HOA might draw a fictional master plan community. Another group, the township, could draw a fictional government building.
- Game players in each stakeholder group write down their grievances, expectations, motivations, demands, and possible solutions to the problem.
- Stakeholder Group Rotation
- Rotate from one group to another clockwise in order to give each stakeholder group the opportunity to assess the perspectives and viewpoints of the other groups.
- Each group is encouraged to write any notes on the sheet belonging to other groups.
- Building bridges
- The group facilitator introduces the idea of building bridges to create synergy and understanding between the groups.
- Each group draws “bridges” on their papers to connect their own perspectives to the ideas written by other groups.
- Community Talk
In the final phase, each group presents their “bridges” and how they plan on creating synergy while fostering understanding with opposing stakeholder groups.
- Debrief
- Hold a roundtable discussion to discuss the difficulties associated with building bridges between quarreling parties.
- Discuss the most effective strategies in building bridges with opposing stakeholder groups.
- Delineate some of the key motivations and demands that are least likely connected to potential bridges.
Peace Learner 