Young girls in Sweden are using Minecraft to help make their cities better

Minecraft Urban Planning Initiative
Minecraft Urban Planning Initiative (Image credit: Microsoft / Mojang)

What you need to know

  • Minecraft is being used by young girls to plan much-needed improvements for their local areas.
  • It's an initiative designed to help make their cities better, while also teaching important skills.
  • The program sees girls and women using Minecraft to plan out their designs.
  • The plan is to make some of these designs a reality, with cooperation from local groups and municipality.

It's always nice to see a game expand beyond the initial promise of fun, and Minecraft is no stranger to charities, unique programs, and tools designed to help thousands of people in every age group. Another initiative that Minecraft is behind is an urban planning movement, which allows girls to use Minecraft as a powerful creative design tool to build various improvements for their cities and neighborhoods.

It's awesome to see, as the initiative even has cooperation from the local municipality and land owners, so that the girls' designs can become reality, and actually make a difference in the real world. This includes parks, recreational activites, improvements to buildings and the surrounding area, and more.

Beyond that though, the program is designed to help girls develop their leadership skills, by giving them a project that they have full control of, and teaching them to use their voices and make their visions happen. This also introduces them to architecture, a career path that many of them might never have considered before.

If you're interested, you can watch the full video above. The girl they chose to speak is Swedish, and such doesn't speak English (who knows why they chose not to caption it) so unless you speak Swedish or are willing to whip out a translate app, you might miss some of the video. Otherwise, it's a lovely video, and an even lovelier movement.

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Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.