Breakaway: An Electronic Game to Address Violence Against Women

In order to inspire deep societal change in the treatment of girls and women, the attitudes of boys must shift. The goal is to create a global soccer game, played by youth, which inspires reflection, decision-making, and the understanding of one's actions and their consequences towards others. The hope is to inspire the beginning of a worldwide shift in social views and actions towards gender equality by targeting boys through 'serious' gaming and social media. A successful merging of new media to this global crisis by capturing the hearts and minds of the world’s youth, can be an important step in reaching potential future perpetrators of violence and improving the future for women. This game will be successful if a player experiences the following 4 shifts: 1. Understanding the problem of gender violence 2. Recognizing one’s own personal responsibility to change 3. Changing one’s own behavior 4. Advocating for others. Champlain College, in partnership with Population Media Center (PMC) and at the request of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has completed the first of three phases to design and deliver a game to address the issue of violence against women.