The Matchmaker Game!

This is a therapeutic tool designed to teach:

• Healthy friendship, dating and relationships skills
• Supported decision-making regarding relational and sexual choices
• Abuse prevention
• Self-advocacy regarding sexual health and development

The player tries to help their character find a romantic partner through interactive “steps” of friendship and dating. It can be used by anyone, but it is especially designed to be used by a professional or provider with someone who experiences intellectual or developmental disabilities or neurological variations. It includes reflection questions designed to spark conversation and feedback from a “trusted advocate” to help the learner better prevent abuse and potentially avoid dangerous situations, while honoring each person’s right to self-determination and risk taking.

Players will choose their character from dozens of avatars of diverse shapes, sizes, cultures and abilities. Then they explore multiple places to meet potential partners, and see how the relationship unfolds—or doesn’t! Throughout the experience we provide questions for players to think about when they find themselves in similar, real-life scenarios; plus they can check in with a trusted advocate to get more feedback on a situation. And there are plenty of surprising outcomes that will keep players interested in trying again until, just maybe, their character finds someone special.

Note, this app is designed for a facilitator to use with one or more clients. Each session can be setup with a new client and/or character, or a client can try again with the same character.