The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) is pleased to announce that its “Equal Opportunity Game” youth workshop has been selected as a winner of the Ashoka Changemakers “Activating Empathy” competition. The purpose of the “Activating Empathy” competition is to identify innovative projects that build empathy and leadership skills in young people. GNOFHAC’s game and fair housing curriculum was one of 628 entries from 74 countries, and is among four projects selected to receive the “Mattel Prize for Play.”

The Equal Opportunity Game is an interactive board game for students in grades four through eight that demonstrates the impact of housing discrimination on a family’s access to resources and opportunity. GNOFHAC staff developed the game in partnership with local educators in 2010, and have shared the curriculum with dozens of schools and advocacy organizations and hundreds of young people in Louisiana, as well as Mobile, AL, and Grand Rapids, MI. The Equal Opportunity Game is part of a larger set of curricular materials GNOFHAC has developed for youth, including its children’s book The Fair Housing Five & the Haunted House, in an effort to provide information about fair housing to families and educate a new generation of leaders about civil rights and equity. More information is available at www.fairhousingfive.org.

GNOFHAC Executive Director James Perry comments, “We are honored to have been selected as a winner of the ‘Activating Empathy’ competition. We look forward to the opportunity to share our board game and curricula with more educators, advocates, and young people across the country.”

Download the press release here.

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