NextGen Games
Supporting teens with social & emotional development, digital literacy & online safety, and equitable access to technology.
Our Story: Empowering Youth Through Gaming
It's tough to be a teen in today's world.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s 2023 Healthy Kids Survey, 33% of middle- and high-schoolers do not feel like they belong at their schools, and 26% feel like they have no one to turn to when faced with problems. As a student reported in the Colorado Children’s Campaign’s 2025 Kids Count publication, “a lot of people are really isolated. Many of us don’t have good support systems, or even just a few people who truly know us … we all need each other in order to thrive, and it’s hard when that dwindles away.”
Video games can make a difference.
NextGen's goal is to address these issues by offering youth the opportunity to come together around video games. According to a 2013 paper published by the American Psychological Association, video games are a great way to foster cognitive and social development in young people. They are “fundamentally voluntary in nature, they can include competitive and cooperative objectives, players immerse themselves in pretend worlds that are safe contexts in which negative emotions can be worked out, and games allow a sense of control with just enough unpredictability to feel deep satisfaction and intense pride when formidable goals are finally reached.” They also have the ability to bring together different cultures, age groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and language groups. Finally, they allow kids to interact with technology, social media, and the online world in a risk-reduced environment.
The NextGen experience is open to everyone.
NextGen is currently located in a converted school bus, which has the capacity to travel to a variety of different communities throughout the region, offering young people the chance to develop a sense of shared community by playing games with one another. After payment of an annual startup fee of $25, the program is only $15/month for participants. An income-based sliding scale is available. Our long-term goal is to continue offering the mobile arcade to as many youth as possible while securing a brick-and-mortar location in a local community.