Introducing.... 
The Justice Games
Facilitated events helping families have 'Raising Kids Who Care' conversations.

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The Justice Games is a set of resources to equip the local school or church to help and inspire families in their communities.

The Justice Games consists of themed events with group experiential learning and facilitated family conversations.

We build resilience in kids by giving them a worldview that says they can respond to problems in the world, rather than being overwhelmed by them, and showing them that they have a part to play in building The Common Good.
 
We know that behaviour and belief have an interactive relationship. In church we hope that teaching values will affect our weekly behaviour. But it is also true that if we can encourage behavioural change, our beliefs will follow.

The Justice Games seeks to encourage people to care more about themselves, other people and the world around them. Raising a generation of kids who care will help make the world a better place.
 
 
Current Reality

• Groups can have an internal focus
• Families have separate activities and are busy
• Consumerism is rampant
• Anxiety and depression are growing
• Economy is our culture’s most important social factor
• Community can have a poor view of the church
• Kids voices not seen as important
• Injustice in the world – who cares?

 
An Imagined Future

• Families working together on themselves, their mission, on caring for others
• Churches seen as places that help families
• Consumerism and money seen as less important than values and purpose
• Families engage together purposefully in social justice
• Issues like climate change and anxiety or whatever they’ve identified together, are worked on by whole communities
• Australia becomes a better global neighbour!

 
 
MISSION:

• The Justice Games provides family event resources to empower schools and churches who want to encourage families by facilitating activities themed around valuable current issues.

 

• The Justice Games is aimed at whole families, not just kids or parents. The games are meaningful fun – aimed at giving families a shared language and experience that helps build healthy relationships and purpose.

 

• The Justice Games establishes community connections and can provide opportunities for peer relationships between stable families and vulnerable families. The Justice Games model collaboration over competition, empowerment over judgement, and fun in learning: for a purpose.

 

PROCESS:
 
Each family event is designed to last for 1.5 - 2 hours, but optional activities make this time flexible.
Each event will have similar components: all-in games, input from contemporary research, facilitated family discussion time, and take-home activities or actions.
Simple meals are added to the event to increase hospitality and relationship building time.
 
 
THEMES:

• It’s All Relative

A little bit of perspective can be a powerful attitude changer. With living in Australia as our norm, we can forget the enormous disparity in wealth across our world. Research shows that wealth inequality has a strong effect on social cohesion and we explore the effects of wealth and poverty. This event helps us think about our relative wealth and how we could be more generous to those who have much less.

• Consumed or Content?

The most highly paid psychologists work for advertising agencies and our economy relies on us being in a constant state of ‘discontent’ so that we will buy more stuff. Kids are targeted directly and are especially vulnerable to our consumer culture. These games will open our eyes and build skills to live with more contentment than consumption, finding more relational ways to meet the needs that ‘buying stuff’ tries to meet temporarily.

• Fighting fair

Empathetic communication is the main tool we have both internationally and interpersonally for good conflict resolution. These games will improve family skills and shared language for listening, loving, and letting go, in order to improve family culture. Forgiveness will feature as both a method for dealing with hurt and a foundational value.

• What Money Can’t Buy

All parents just want their kids to be happy. But we’re sometimes led astray or mistaken about what real happiness is and how we can ‘make’ it! These games will show us the effects our wealth has on us and help us discuss as a household the ways we could actively improve our happiness.

• Taming Technology

Technology is listed in a study into top parenting struggles as a dominant feature of the family problems landscape. Digital content, video games, social media and inappropriate internet searches are growing faster than parents can keep up. These games will help families recognise warning signs, build boundaries together and learn to use technology in helpful ways.

• Extreme Character

What works best – competition or collaboration? Should we be cultivating humility or pride to succeed in our word? What’s the difference between honesty and lying? Why does kindness matter in a me-centred world? Both the Bible and contemporary psychology agree on several character traits that would not only improve our family life, but also the world around us!
 
 
Future themes:
-Refugee experience
-Courage, forgiveness and wisdom: essential spirituality for families
-Family rules – engaging kids in the discipline process
-Dealing with anxiety
-Advice from young adults
-Our family’s carbon footprint
-From grumpiness to gratitude, from happiness to contentment
-Family-friendly events for changing the world (eg. Voices for Justice)
-Local Community Development
-Indigenous connections
-…?
 
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For more information contact Susy Lee:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0412 261 519

Our Church loved using The Justice Games:
It's All Relative resource! 

We had people of all ages from our Church and the community attend The Justice Games event,
​and everyone found it to be thought-provoking, challenging and fun.

As an organiser of the event, I found the Justice Games resource easy to follow, and the event easy to organise. 

​I would highly recommend this for Churches, schools and any group that wants to make a difference in this world."   

​- Katherine Ruhle, Families' Pastor @The Gap Uniting Church