As we move into our second year of Games for Justice, one of the biggest questions for me as a coordinator has been about balancing our two main focuses— social justice and game design— in the curriculum together. The youth need to have enough time to explore game design while also having space to ground themselves in community, accountability, and social justice. As a staff member, there needs to be adequate time for us to teach the basics of game design as well as room for youth to feel confident in their artistic, writing, coding, and design skills. However, there also needs to be a common understanding of our values, and the creation of a space that will challenge us, keep us safe, and prioritize our collective personal and radical growth.
Last year, the Games for Justice program was housed within The City School’s Summer Leadership Program (SLP). Because I was also a staff member for this program, most of my time was dedicated to the cultivation of community care and accountability. SLP did the necessary work of educating and supporting youth in organizing for any racial justice issue of their choosing. With the support of this external program, when I transitioned to the Games for Justice programming space, it was fine to focus solely on the game design education because SLP’s curriculum had laid the justice-centered groundwork for us.
However, this year, because our program is standalone, the staff team and I will have to make sure that we have a cohesive, collective framing for what anti-oppression means in our Summer 2021 community.
So, as I start to design the blueprints of a curriculum that will balance both games education and social justice, I will be lucky to rely upon my training from The City School. I’ve spent the past four years as a youth participant, staff member, student, and mentor at TCS. What I’ve learned there from my peers and mentors will provide an invaluable compass for my work this summer, as well as my future paths.
I’ve created a living document for our community to use as a skeleton or starting point for naming our basic goals and values. This document will serve both as a guide for our future, but also a marker of our growth. As we create this curriculum, I hope to center its fluidity in its design—as more youth and staff join and name their community goals and values, our plans and structures will change according to the collective’s needs and wellbeing.
—Husain