CityMatCH Life Course Game Tool

December 1, 2011

CityMatCH and Contra Costa Health Services created the 'Life Course Game,' an interactive tool for demonstrating how social and biological factors impact health and development throughout life. The game and facilitator's kit can increase awareness and facilitate discussion about the root causes that affect maternal, child, adolescent and family health.

The Life Course Game can be used in a variety of settings, including in a large plenary, a community meeting, a classroom, and a training session. It has been used by professionals to raise general awareness of the myriad of risk and protective factors that determine a person's life course (poverty, race, environment, etc.) in community groups, with health care providers, and with students. Others have used the game to begin conversations about translating life course theory into public health and clinical practice. Though these are the most common uses for the game, CityMatCH has worked with groups who have used the game in broader venues and outside of public health (e.g. one community used the game to talk with after school providers about incorporating a life course view into their programming).

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