Project Deliverable
The 'Embedded Well-being' Guidebook Is Here
We are proud to share the final output of the Gamer-Con project: the 'Embedded Well-being' Guidebook, a practical resource for youth workers who want to use gaming as a setting for social connection, reflection and well-being. The Guidebook brings together everything our three partner organisations — RÍSÍ (Iceland), BACKSLASH (Spain) and Unofficial Media & Training (Ireland) — learned while running gaming social events with young people aged 18 to 25 across our three countries.
Gamer-Con started from a simple observation: gaming is already one of the few spaces where many young people reliably experience connection, shared purpose and enjoyment, even as they navigate loneliness, uncertainty and the pressures of major life transitions. Rather than adding a formal well-being programme on top of gaming, the project set out to test something different: could well-being be embedded within the activity itself, surfacing naturally through play rather than through a separate intervention?
What's inside the Guidebook
The Guidebook is organised into six chapters, moving from concept to practice:
- Chapter 1 & 2 — Understanding Embedded Well-being: the project's rationale and its theoretical roots in experiential learning, social-emotional learning and non-formal education.
- Chapter 3 — Findings from the Gamer-Con Social Events: results from the gaming sessions run across Iceland, Spain and Ireland, including social connection, emotional well-being and skills development outcomes reported by participants.
- Chapter 4 — Practical Methods: how to choose the right game, structure sessions using a Before–During–After framework, and facilitate reflection without turning play into a workshop.
- Chapter 5 — Creating a Supportive and Inclusive Gaming Environment: guidance on accessibility, group agreements and building a culture of respect.
- Chapter 6 — Facilitating Open Discussions and Coping Strategies: how to open meaningful conversations about well-being safely, and when to step back.
Key findings
Across the Gamer-Con Social Events, participants reported striking outcomes: nearly 93% felt more socially connected since joining the sessions, almost 93% felt more relaxed or less stressed, and 78.6% felt more comfortable discussing their emotions and well-being as a direct result of taking part. Many participants also described developing transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, empathy and leadership through the shared experience of gaming together.
"I have never really been one to share how I feel or talk about my mental state, but doing so with the group feels easier or more casual — there are no pressures or judgements."
— Gamer-Con participant
Who it's for
The Guidebook is written for youth workers, educators and community practitioners — whether they already run gaming activities and want to build in a well-being dimension, or are exploring gaming with young people for the first time. No gaming expertise is required: the emphasis throughout is on curiosity, attentiveness and creating the right conditions for connection, rather than on being an expert player.
Gamer-Con: Gaming Social Events to Support the Well-being of Young People in Life Transitions is a Small-scale Partnership funded under the Erasmus+ Programme (2024-3-IS01-KA210-YOU-000288127), running from January 2025 to June 2026, and led by Rafíþróttasamtök Íslands (Iceland) in partnership with BACKSLASH (Spain) and Unofficial Media and Training Limited (Ireland).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
