Geplaatst op: 10 December 2025
In the Municipality of Gorinchem, the project is now truly completed: in 2024, four properties were transformed into a route through realistic cases of criminal property use. For over a year, we worked with the municipality to train residents, entrepreneurs, law enforcement officers, and administrators in recognizing signs of subversion. The result? Greater awareness, faster signaling, and daring to take action.
What distinguishes this approach is that it is not a classroom training or theoretical session, but an immersive experience in the real living environment of participants. Subversion is not a far-from-your-bed show. It takes place behind closed doors and often in the middle of residential areas.
Subversion: closer than you think
Consider a barber shop where no one ever comes out with a new haircut. Or a terraced house where unknown men walk in and out at strange times. A house in your neighborhood that suddenly has newspaper taped to the windows for months. You feel that something is not right, but is that enough to report it?
With City Escape, we take participants into exactly that area of tension!
Four properties, four realistic cases
Together with the policy advisors on subversion from the Municipality of Gorinchem, we have transformed vacant properties into realistic scenarios based on typical forms of criminal property use. Participants walk from location to location, together with an actor and an expert from the municipality. In each property, they discover:
- deviant behavior
- hidden signals
- possible risks for the neighborhood
- ways to report or ask further questions
This interactive route makes subversion visible and discussable in a way that has an immediate impact. A subversion advisor from the municipality joins in to delve deeper into the subject together with the participants. This makes the municipality visible and personal, and lowers the threshold for reporting signals considerably.
An experience that lingers
During the City Escape, participants are completely drawn into an exciting game. In each property, they are drawn into a new situation by an actor, in which a different facet of subversion becomes visible each time. There is no safe observation position: you are literally in the middle of the situation.
Then follows the most important part: an in-depth follow-up discussion with an expert. This is where answers come to questions such as: which signals are relevant? Where and when should I report? And what can I do as a resident myself?
Afterwards, participants go home with a clear perspective on action and the conviction that being alert really makes a difference.
The success in Gorinchem
The City Escape has had a demonstrable effect in Gorinchem. Participants now recognize signals in their own neighborhood more quickly, are more likely to start a conversation with colleagues or neighbors, and dare to report something when something is not right. Moreover, they experience that they themselves can have an influence on the safety in their neighborhood. The special thing is that this effect does not arise from learning in theory, but from literally experiencing it.
Is your municipality ready for this approach?
Meanwhile, the mission in Gorinchem has been completed, and our grim figure is symbolically moving his shady business further. The question is: which municipality is ready for this unique approach?
Do you also want to activate residents, law enforcement officers, and administrators to recognize signs of subversion?
Do you want an accessible training that really makes an impact?
Are you looking for ways to make criminal property use visible outside meeting rooms and PowerPoints?
Then we would like to get started with you.
Contact us via info@escaperoomdesigner.nl or 06-57034076 and discover how City Escape can also make a difference in your municipality.