Go Deep with Inclusion and Diversity

Authors: Pat Black and Andy Smith

In Amsterdam this March around 100 people from many European countries and further afield met to explore the community building game and approach called Go Deep and how we can all go beyond the surface into deeper more satisfying and long lasting connections and relationships.

Go Deep is a game that brings together people in a neighbourhood or organisation to go deeper when processing the issues that matter and also to create community actions that work towards an agreed shared vision.

It uses many of the ideals of a game....fun, competition, teamwork, timed challenges etc.... to help groups realise their talents gifts and dreams but also on how to engage with the things that disturb or cause problems for us too.

At the Go Deep Open House, facilitators, community leaders, politicians, community builders and activists put their heads and hearts together to explore how to make initiatives and actions more inclusive and diverse.

One of the main learnings came through an open forum debate on the morning of the second day which culminated in a deep and moving understanding of how the missing gifts and contributions of disabled people impoverish all of us and the practical and relationship steps that need to happen.

We also explored how being more transparent and open about our own unconscious prejudices helps... how these interfere with our attempts to realise the vision and hopes we also hold dear.

We learned more and together about how to welcome in honest and personal reflections and how to hold these in the room in ways that helped all of us to listen more deeply.

You can see visual and graphic recording images which distil a lot of the learning here. 

Go Deep: Together in Diversity is a project developed for and supported by the European Commission under the Justice Programme & Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme. It makes use of the newly developed and award winning Go Deep Game and uses the power of game as a way to bring together diverse groups of people in local areas, for example citizens with multicultural and multilingual background, or where minority groups are particularly excluded or subject to discrimination.

The game has already been piloted in many different communities in different regions in EU with previous support under the Erasmus+ program.

Find out about Go Deep Games near you or invite us to help you plan and organise a game in your neighbourhood or organisation.  

Diversity Matters in Edinburgh is a partner and designer of the game and this June and August you can play with us in Edinburgh and the west coast of Argyll. 

Details of the event on 22 & 23 June in Edinburgh are available on Facebook and Eventbu now.