REFUGE Project : a cooperative game to strengthen youth resilience
Poppies and Daffodils is currently developing a cooperative educational game called “REFUGE”, designed for middle and high school students, apprentices, and young people in general.
This innovative game encourages players to reflect on life’s challenges, better understand their emotions, and identify the inner and outer resources they can draw upon when facing failure, rejection, fear, or isolation.
REFUGE : a meaningful acronym:
R – Recognise your emotions
E – Empathise and listen
F – Face challenges
U – Unite your strengths
G – Ground yourself and manage stress
E – Engage in change
Inspired by real-life stories — historical, contemporary or local — the game places young people in situations that mirror their own experiences: school anxiety, social exclusion, family pressure, attention disorders, and more.
Its goal is to create a space for discussion, self-identification and the development of resilience strategies — all through play and cooperation.
Games : a powerful tool for exploring resilience
Games provide a particularly effective medium for addressing sensitive topics with teenagers.
They encourage engagement, reduce inhibition, and allow young people to put words to complex emotions without feeling exposed.
Through cards, role-playing and guided discussions, REFUGE becomes a structured educational tool that helps explore personal resources, coping strategies, and the importance of collective support.
Thanks to its flexibility, REFUGE can be facilitated by teachers, youth workers, school psychologists, or community educators.
It requires no specialised training, but offers a safe and structured framework suited for small group discussions.
The game can be used in various settings: civic and moral education sessions, prevention workshops, one-on-one support, or extracurricular activities.
It offers a concrete entry point to discuss topics that are often hard to verbalise, opening a space where everyone can speak freely and feel understood.
REFUGE provides a safe, serious, and playful experience — one that can spark lasting self-awareness.
Choosing cooperative games : a pedagogy of mutual support
REFUGE was designed as a cooperative — not competitive — game, in order to promote mutual support, solidarity, and collective problem-solving.
Each player has a role to play in the success of the group. This approach encourages inclusion, especially for young people who may be struggling or socially withdrawn.
It also reflects a fundamental truth: resilience is often a collective process, strengthened by human connections, external support, and the ability to come together.
By playing as a team, participants learn to listen, support, and take action together — key skills for navigating the future.
A real-life pilot phase
The game will be piloted starting in September 2025 at Trotters Training CFA, our partner institution in Mérignac, to assess its impact and adjust its content if needed.
The prototype is already complete — including the mechanics, cards, stories, and scenarios.
What remains is to fund its physical production, in order to move from a tested educational tool to a fully developed, replicable, and distributable board game.
A local ambition… with national reach
REFUGE is designed to become a valuable resource for:
– schools and educational institutions (middle schools, high schools, vocational training centres)
– parent–teacher associations
– local authorities
– and more broadly, any educational or community-based organisation working with young people
It can be used in various contexts, such as after-school activity programmes, prevention workshops, or classroom-based educational projects.
REFUGE aligns with the French Health Education Pathway and meets the objectives of the National Multi-Sector Strategy for the Development of Life Skills (2022–2037).
Poppies and Daffodils has a clear goal:
To distribute REFUGE nationwide, so that any school or youth organisation that wishes to use this innovative tool can access it.
A future listing of the REFUGE game on Eduscol, the official French Ministry of Education platform for teachers, would give the project national visibility and credibility.
Such recognition would help integrate the game into classroom practices and educational programmes, while legitimising its use within schools.
But our ambition doesn’t stop at national borders.
REFUGE is also intended to be shared internationally — with all countries and organisations committed to building youth resilience, supporting mental health, and promoting well-being.
The game can be part of European or international educational cooperation projects, and may inspire new pedagogical initiatives around the world.