EDMONTON — An educational assistant at an inner-city elementary school is giving kids a chance to build important social skills through role-playing.

Marc Schubert started a Dungeons and Dragons program this week for students in Grades 4 through 6, and he’s launched a fundraiser to help some of them bring the game home for the summer.

A passionate D & D enthusiast who recently rediscovered his own love of role-playing games, he sees it as a way for kids to escape their problems and express themselves in ways they might otherwise be scared to.

“A lot of the kids who are at this school have difficult challenges in their life, and sometimes the best way to get through those things is to pretend you’re someone else, and express the frustrations or the angers you may have,” Schubert said.

“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a good way for kids to do something that isn’t on a screen and interact with other human beings and learn teamwork and collaboration and critical thinking.”

In Schubert’s experience, the game teaches a host of skills, including teamwork, collaboration, risk-taking, resilience, storytelling and problem-solving.

Schubert and Grade 1 teacher Jon Robinson held their first weekly after-school D & D sessions at Delton on Monday, each working with a group of five students in conjunction with Boys & Girls Club Big Brothers Big Sisters.

They worked with the kids to create characters, asking them what kinds of stories they wanted to tell and taking their input to create fantasy settings to play in.

Schubert hopes the game will address some key learning issues facing students.

“There is literacy and numeracy just automatically wrapped into it, and the kids don’t even notice it,” he said.

Schubert launched a GoFundMe to raise $1,000 to buy kits for at least three kids to take home. Each kit will include a handbook, guides, miniatures, markers, dice and a battle mat.

Schubert said many kids and their families at Delton don’t have disposable income, and while the game is relatively affordable to play, it can be pricey to get started.

“I’ve always felt that’s one of the downfalls of certain groups — where you get to do all this fun stuff, but when that program ends, there’s no way to carry it on,” he said. “So I’m hoping this will basically provide a way for kids to carry on playing and building friendships and creating stories together.”

Schubert had not played Dungeons and Dragons since he was a kid, but rediscovered his love of the game 18 months ago when he was a community support worker with the YWCA.

He was working with a 26-year-old man with high-functioning autism, and tried role-playing to help him learn social skills and cues.

The two started regularly going to drop-in Dungeons and Dragons sessions at Mission Fun and Games in St. Albert.

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“I realized just how much fun it was and how many skills are fostered through the game,” Schubert said. “Watching the young man I work with learn social skills and learn turn-taking and learn how to separate fantasy from reality was also a big thing for him.”

Schubert’s long-term goal is to get people who are skilled at running Dungeons and Dragons games to lead similar afterschool programs across the city.

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