How does the OASIS methodology work?

Through the appreciative gaze and the search for opportunities, talents and knowledge, the spirit of cooperative social entrepreneurship is cultivated. It also strengthens the affective connections between the people taking part of the process, boosting the individual and collective empowerment and the idea that it is possible to generate social transformations from satisfactory experiences.

At the end of the experience, there’s a physical intervention performed in the space, through the collective participation of their habitants, meaning a real experience of how it is possible to unite different people in their highest aspirations.
The intervention consists in recovering an abandoned or degraded space, in the representation of their common dreams, what can be translated into parks, murals, gardens, outdoor furniture, cultural activities, …, building them with their own hands and hearts.

The constructed projects are an essential part of the methodology. They are opportunities for participants and members of the community to work together in a tangible and visible improvement. The experience of literally transforming a physical space in a short time leaves an indelible mark. For the community, this constructed spaces functions as a physical memory that they have the power and the ability to create a better future for themselves.

OG
Illustration by Instituto Elos

Through the metaphor of OASIS, it seeks to rescue the idea of ​satisfying ​places, full of joy, dreams, beauty, in accordance with our desires and aspirations. In spite of the wide “deserts” that spread through regions and communities throughout the planet, where social and / or environmental vitality has been destroyed, “oasis” appear as spaces of confidence where it is possible to recover collective action. In this way, the Oasis Game intends to create and expand these spaces, starting with a physical intervention in a neighborhood that promotes cooperation and participation, to continue extending these spaces to different areas and territories, expanding the idea that Change is possible, both individual and collective.
It is a flexible process that allows people to be involved in building the type of community, society and, finally, the world in which they want to live.
The Oasis Game is composed of a community of players considering a broad definition of community that involves various stakeholders such as; neighbors, NGOs and associations, local government, community leaders and companies, etc. These players create the Social Network; a space for dreams, talents, resources and solutions. Conceived to be carried out in a full cooperative way, so that we can all together do something in common, the Oasis proposes rules that allow the victory of all, without exceptions. In this scenario, the success of one depends on the success of the other.
The Oasis game is organized in the following seven steps:

method_by_elos
Instituto Elos

The Oasis game is a social technology developed by Instituto Elos in Brasil. has been played more than 500 times in 40 countries on four continents. In Europe; some of them have been carried out in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Madrid.