The Threshold

An experience for raising awareness about the homelessness

The simulation

“The Threshold” is a gamificated activity, intended to raise awareness of the homelessness social issue. It is designed for a group of between 10 and 30 students over 15 years of age and it should last an hour or an hour and a half approximately. The aim of this activity is to make participants to personally experience the problems that homeless people or people at risk of being homeless suffer, and also to identify those difficulties that public and private institutions encounter when trying to alleviate the homelessness phenomenon. The scientific basis of this activity is the report “Promoting protection of the right to housing – Homelessness prevention in the context of evictions”. Dr. Padraic Kenna (NUI Galway) was its principal researcher and researchers of the UNESCO Housing Chair co-coordinated it.

In “The Threshold” box you will find the material for the proper functioning of the session:

  • 15 Character profile cards.
  • 5 Social entity cards.
  • 30 Scoring Clips.
  • 3 different card types:
    • 18 Event cards (violet-coloured ).
    • 18 Circumstance cards (blue-coloured ).
    • 36 Social service cards (green-coloured ).

You will also find a printed guide that gives you all the tools to make the activity work, to stimulate reflection on this phenomenon and to learn more about this subject.

In the following video you will find how this activity works:

The gamification dynamic is designed so that a part of the participants portray characters profiled on the basis of real-life situations that, according to the mentioned report, show the wide range of existing possibilities. These characters will face situations and circumstances (based on what happened as a result of the 2007 financial crisis) that will affect their resilience and availability of housing.

The rest of the participants will be public and private entities, including the family, who will try to alleviate and provide solutions for the difficult circumstances faced by the characters, through the selection and distribution of resources available in the form of social welfare benefits. These entities will have to manage the limited resources they have and to make decisions based on priorities.

The main objective of this activity, once finished, is to generate an active debate on the homelessness phenomenon and on possible solutions to this problem. The idea is for participants to draw their own conclusions based on their personal experience and the data that will be incorporated during the activity.

This simulation can be complemented with “El Umbral” documentary. In this way, participants will be able to learn more about homelessness phenomenon thanks to the intervention of experts and of personal testimonials of real characters.

Production: UNESCO Housing Chair at the Rovira i Virgili University
Authors: Jan Gonzalo Iglesia, Jordi De Andrés Cardona, Javier Coca Sánchez
Illustration and graphic design: Neus Sabaté i Barrieras
Layout: Gràficament