Under Pressure

Operating as a social enterprise, Diversion is a company for social innovation based in the Netherlands. Diversion tackles societal challenges through the development of creative concepts, in various fields including education, youth literacy, citizenship and polarisation, youth participation and emancipation.

Diversion draws on over 19 years of experience in openly discussing socially sensitive topics in and outside of the classroom. Through projects in education, we deploy young role models (peer educators) to open a discussion on subjects that youth may find uninteresting, or which are politically sensitive or are associated with taboos (e.g. antisemitism; anti-Islamism; radicalisation; LGBTQI+ inclusion; disinformation; and debt and poverty prevention).

Type of Organisation: For profit

Under Pressure is an innovative classroom programme that increases resilience against disinformation and polarising content to prevent online isolation and radicalisation among young people. Under Pressure combines two best practices in education: peer education and gamification.

Peer educators are young role models (ages 18-26) from different backgrounds who are trained to use their own experiences and shared frame of reference with the students in the classroom, thereby asserting a credible voice and inviting students to engage in the conversation about this difficult topic. Moreover, by openly reflecting on their own experiences with disinformation, conspiracy theories and/or (online) isolation, and by sharing their own frustrations, ‘turning points’ and reasons to stand up for democratic values, the peer educators become positive role models for the students.

Under Pressure also teaches young people to better recognise disinformation and to take on an active role in the countering of its diffusion through gamification. The Under Pressure game is highly appealing to young people and teaches students about the successful mechanisms behind disinformation. As students are guided through the levels of the game by the peer educators, they actively reflect on their decisions in the game and learn how certain online behaviour can have consequences in real life.

The combination of peer education with gamification makes Under Pressure an effective methodology for training young people to be critical and constructive (online) media consumers, so that they feel empowered and better equipped to navigate the rapidly changing media landscape as responsible young citizens who are supportive of democratic values, both online and offline.

The project has resulted in an international online hub (in English): www.getunderpressure.com. Here, youngsters, parents and (educational) professionals can find out about the methodology, access several open-source course materials, including dialogue tools, and see a demo version of the Under Pressure game.

Furthermore, this online hub contains all publications about the Under Pressure project. On our blog (www.getunderpressure.com/blog/), visitors can read various posts about the project, its performance and our peer educators. This includes interviews with educators, testimonials from our peer educators and responses to the programme from the classroom.

To get an impression of the Under Pressure game, please go to this demo: https://www.getunderpressure.com/demo/

Address

Diversion Max Euweplein 36
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Contact person: Emma van Toorn
Telephone: +31 203059286
Email | Website