Here's To A Great Year, 2017 🚀

View this email in your browser Dear Games for Change Community, Join us this holiday season by supporting the initiatives driven by Games for Change that empower game creators and social innovators to drive real-world impact. G4C harnesses the power of games to help people learn, improve their communities, and contribute to make the world a better place. During 2017, G4C has had the incredible opportunity to witness the games for change community grow. G4C's efforts have made room for diverse perspectives, creative and progressive thinking, respectful dialogue, and collaboration across industries and sectors. As a leader in its field and in order to create an open awareness about the work that we do, we would like to invite you to explore G4C's 2017 achievements: CONVENINGS The G4C Festival 2017 was the largest Festival in G4C's history with over 1000 attendees from the public and private sectors including games designers, educators, government agencies, policy makers, technology and media companies, NGOs and foundations. At the Festival, we held our first VR Brain Jam that brought together 22 neuroscientists with 64 VR developers to explore the intersection of their respective domains. We also hosted a Minecraft HackJam with 75 teachers and curriculum experts teaming with Minecraft Education Edition programmers to create curriculum for use in the classroom. G4C held the first annual VR for Change summit, which launched a year round initiative featuring innovative projects and best practices from leaders in the sector that are creating social impact in the fields of MR/AR/VR. G4C Industry Circle Webinars continue with our 3rd edition of the program. Starting with Filament Games in December 2017, we will continue to host sessions with leading members of the Games for Change community, including: E-Line Media, Schell Games, Classcraft, Triseum and Yogome. EDUCATION The G4C Student Challenge is now live in 5 cities across the country including New York City, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Atlanta. We have doubled the number of teachers that have been trained to run games designs courses from 60 to 120, and we will have reached a total of 3,000 students by the program's end.  G4C partnered with CS4All and the NYC Department of Education to launch the CS4All Hack League competition in mid-November 2017. This year, over 60 public middle and high schools from across all five New York City boroughs were invited to participate in a bracket-style competition where students created games tackling real-world issues. EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION The mobile game that we executive produced with Skilled Creative, Title IX, was beta tested in 5 schools and we anticipate a national roll out to universities across the country in January 2018. The mobile game was funded by Women's Sports Foundation. We secured our first grant to executive produce an immersive VR project with Princeton University's Nuclear Futures Lab that explores nuclear weapons risk. The two year grant was funded by the MacArthur Foundation. YOUR SUPPORT For 2018, Games for Change will continue to lead programs such as the G4C Festival, Student Challenge, Industry Circle, CS4ALL Hack League, and its most recent year-long initiative VR for Change. That is why we need your support and continued participation! G4C is a nonprofit organization supported by interns, volunteers, contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations, in part, and with funds from government agencies. We hope that you will join us this year as we continue to break down technological barriers for underrepresented communities, narrow the gender gap, and promote games for socially positive experiences that tackle real-world issues. We look forward to taking this journey together! The G4C Team GIFT G4C Every donation - at any level - helps make G4C's work possible and makes a difference. All donations are 100% tax-deductible. Thank you for supporting! Copyright © 2017 Games for Change, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website www.gamesforchange.org or gamesforchange.org/festival/ You can opt out of this newsletter at any time. Our mailing address is: Games for Change 205 E 42nd St., 20th floor New York, New York 10017 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.