STREETS OF MY TOWN
A social impact game that improves mental health resilience in teens
How can you get help if you don’t know where to look?
Streets of My Town connects young people with support services in their local community. Through interactive storytelling in a gorgeous hand-painted world players discover the solutions to common youth issues.
Improving mental health resilience in teenagers
Playing Streets of My Town introduces local support services and gamifies help-seeking behaviours. This reduces the knowledge barriers and stigma of reaching out for help in the real world.
Meeting young people where they're at: online!
Nearly all young people play video games. It’s a world they dedicate a lot of time to. It’s a world where they feel comfortable. Streets of My Town uses this world of games to connect with young people on their level.
Linked to Australian Curriculum
Streets of My Town links directly to the requirements of the Australian Curriculum for Years 7 and 8. It is ideally suited for classroom delivery.
Security, confidentiality and privacy
Streets of My Town does not collect any personal information or identifiable details about the players.
Reducing stigma associated with mental health
Seeking help when you’re not feeling well is seen by teenagers as ‘not cool’. Streets of My Town explores the benefits of seeking help early, normalising help seeking behaviours.
A game about the quintessential Aussie suburb
A big concept, done locally. We customise the game for each Local Government Area, making the playable world recognisable. The local learning is completely relevant to the player.
Roll out the game for your local area. It’s easy and affordable.
There are four steps to create your very own Streets of My Town, completely customised to your local community.
Select the topics you’d like to address
Every community is unique, so your Streets of My Town should be completely relevant to your community.
Gather relevant information about the local organisations that can provide support to young people.
We’ll help you translate complicated information into youth friendly, easy to understand language.
Select some local landmarks you’d like to see in the game
We’ll draw them up and include them. We will also customise the map to reflect your area.
Provide us with any other local information that will reflect your community’s identity.
Let’s be creative and think outside the box!
Interested? Let’s talk!
It all starts with a message
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT STREETS OF MY TOWN
“I’m SO BLOWN AWAY!!
It’s incredible. Honestly, even at my age now, it’s the potentially the most amazing experience I’ve had in using local support services. It really made me feel like those services in real life are so much easier to approach and use – and I’m not just saying that.
Not to mention the overall aesthetic, ability to scroll around, the relevance of the characters, etc. So impressed!”
Youth Worker
“Why did i not know any of these services before playing this game??”
“I loved the free-feeling exploration and movement, as well as (surprisingly) the learning and helping all the different people.”
“I loved learning about how to support young people who are going through tough times. I would usually find learning about this kinda stuff very boring, but the game was presented in such an amazing way that I had fun playing it and learnt loads of stuff! Amazing game!”
Young people
OUR LOGIC MODEL
Streets of My Town is a collaboration between youth work specialists, mental health specialists, game designers and artists. A comprehensive logic model was developed to ensure our impact can be measured and our product can be continuously improved.
The situation we seek to address
Young people experience mental health and related issues in adolescence. Most of the time they are unaware of the local services and programs that can support them. They may also encounter barriers to accessing these services due to unfamiliarity, stigma and embarrassment.
Aim and Objectives
Streets of My Town improves the mental health and wellbeing of young people. It does this through a custom virtual learning environment designed to connect them to local support services and reduce barriers of access.
Target Cohort
Young people aged 10 to 15 years old.
Outcomes
- Young people improve their mental health literacy
- Young people improve their knowledge of help / local supports available and when to access them.
- Reduced stigma associated with help seeking among young people
- Young people begin to access help services when they need it
- Increased mental health resilience among young people, including help seeking behaviours.
ABOUT SOCIAL IMPACT GAMES
We believe that engaging young people into interactive, playful environments can produce great social outcomes. We’re a team of experienced youth workers and game designers that love using game technologies to achieve social impact.
Playful exploration
In Streets of My Town the player explores their local community in a playful and gameful way.
Immediate feedback loops
By using smart technology we can provide a customised learning experience. Every player will have a unique play-through and receive immediate feedback on the decisions they make in game.
Hand painted and custom designed
We’ve created a quintessential Australian game with a real local vibe. We believe that it is important to strengthen the connection between the online experience and the real-world information that is given.
Creative problem solving
Through clever game design the player engages with real world information about the local services and organisations. Instead of looking at powerpoint presentations, young people get to engage in a fun game, optimised to support their learning.