I was sitting at my desk wondering what to write about this week.
As I looked around I saw all the notes, pictures and memories from just one year of youth work on my office walls. I have over 20 drawings, notes, fan mail papers and photos and I began to wonder what I’d do with them all at the end of the summer when I’ll need new space for the next year’s youth work memories.
This may seem like a crazy post. Maybe you’re not as sentimental as me. Maybe your youth don’t write you notes, draw you pictures or make Doritos bags into butterflies. But mine do. And I’m sure that some of you have a file, folder or box(es) full of youth work memories from your years in the profession.
For those of you that do save your youth work memories, here are four options for you:
Create scrapbooks and / or photo albums
Using paper, photo-safe glue and some other crafty bits (like beads, string and shapes), you can create a really nice scrapbook (or you can go to the scrapbook store and spend a lot of $$).
Otherwise, you can take photos of the items and create a photo album alongside other photos you took from the group’s activities.
Create a photo book
You can use an online store to upload your years of digital photos from youth work and create a book of memories from your groups. Maybe you were with one group for a long time or are moving agencies and you want to remember a lot of great years with the youth in your care.
If you have printed photos from the land that time forgot – or shall we say the land and time of the 35mm film – you can get them scanned. That way you have digital copies that can be uploaded for photo books as well.
Create a book of artwork
There are a lot of great online companies offering a service to have your artwork turned into books. This does have a cost associated with it, but you might find it worth it for youth work memories you just can’t part with.
Create other items with artwork, poems and much more
You can create magnets, calendars, postcards and greeting cards with the artwork from your youth work years.
Questions: Do you save your youth work memories? How do you preserve them? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
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