@Stake To Receive “Knight Prototype Fund” Grant
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
By Engagement Lab
11/17/2015
We are thrilled to announce that the Knight Foundation’s Knight Prototype Fund has selected our game @Stake as one of twenty “early-stage media and information projects” to receive $35,000 in support, as well as design training and peer networking opportunities.
Funding will be used to accelerate development of the next version of @Stake over the next six months. It will help us improve access to the game, decrease the need for a facilitator to run the game, and allow customizable decks designed to fit the specific needs of participants. It will also accelerate production of the @Stake mobile application, which is currently under development at the Engagement Lab and is slated for release on iOS and Android next Spring.
@Stake Project Manager Becky Michelson joined the foundation in Miami for a two-day human-centered design workshop with the LUMA Institute to develop a plan to improve end-user engagement and involvement.
“It was wonderful to meet the other grantees,” she said. “The workshop was great. It was hands-on and we used two of the design prompts for a different project’s workshop the following week.”
“One of the activities at the Prototype Fund workshop was mapping the stakeholders for our civic engagement game. We thought about about the broader network of potentially interested players, including civics teachers, non-profit organizations, city leaders, and more. Beyond brainstorming at the workshop, it was useful to scope out the project milestones for the next 6 months, with the input of other participants.”
@Stake is a role-playing/tabletop game developed by the Engagement Lab to foster democracy, empathy, and creative problem solving for civic issues. Players take on a variety of stakeholder roles and pitch their ideas within a strict time limit. It is designed to teach players about the challenges of implementing competing interests within a community.
The game has successfully engaged participants and driven conversation in workshops with the UNDP, the Frontiers of Democracy conference, theJewish Federation, youth ambassador programs for inner city planning institutions in Boston, and the United Nations in New York.
Learn more about the project, or download the printable version of @Stake 2.0 from the Project Website.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is a national non-profit organization dedicated to the support of quality journalism, media innovation, community engagement and support of the arts. According to their website, they believe “democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.” Knight Foundation’s Media Information Team selects projects working on new ways to create, share and use information within communities. We are honored to be one of the many amazing projects chosen to receive this grant.
“We’re grateful for the generous support of the Knight Foundation to be able to take this project to the next level,” Becky said about the news. “The design-thinking methods to refine the project and the connections with fellow media and civic engagement innovators are invaluable.”