Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

What Type Of Youth Work Do YOU Do?

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If you’re a regular reader of Youth Workin’ It, you’ll know that we’re currently running a series on different types of youth work around the world.

This is where we interview a new youth worker each week about their youth work niche. So far, we’ve interviewed a couple of youth pastors, a university professor, a youth speaker, a Girl Scout troop leader and many more. They’ve been from the US, UK, Kenya and Australia, so it’s given the series a true global flavor.

We want to interview even more youth workers, no matter what type of youth work they do, no matter where they live and no matter whether they’re professionals who are paid for what they do or volunteers who do it in their spare time.

Which is where you come in. We want to interview YOU as part of this series – if you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re a youth worker, so you’re pre-qualified!

The interview’s nice and simple – there are 12 questions we’re asking everyone that helps provide us and all our readers a better idea of the different types of youth work that people do and what’s unique about them.

To take part in the series, just complete the three fields listed below and hit “Send” – we’ll then get in contact soon after to send you the questions.

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    What type of youth work you do (required)

    n.b. We won’t spam you or add you to any kind of mailing list – we’ll only be using your email address to contact you for the interview.

     

    3 Ways To Become A Better Youth Worker

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    Become better youth worker
    One way you can become a better youth worker

    Q: How can I be a better youth worker?

    A: You must mean besides following all our advice on this blog?!

    Keep Learning

    The answer seems basic but can be one of the hardest things to do when you get busy. You have funds to raise, activities to plan, risks to manage, trips to coordinate and everything else you do in your ‘free time.’

    In order to continue your professional development, remember the three R’s (and no, don’t think of that pin worn by a 1st grade teacher from the South about Readin’ Ritin’ and Rithmetic)

    Keep Reading

    • Read good youth work books – we’ve reviewed a few. Ask youth work friends to recommend books that they’ve read or heard about. Or check out the review section of youth work magazines.
    • Read books that will foster your creativity – even if they aren’t about your subject matter exactly. For example, this Friday you’ll see a review about a book for teachers rather than youth workers that I believe can revolutionize your youth work.
    • Read blogs by youth workers – you may not love every single post by them, but by keeping your finger on the pulse of youth work and youth ministry around the world you will serve your youth better. A good way to do this is to check out our ‘Blog Posts of the Week’ on Saturdays which feature articles and posts from youth workers around the world.
    • Read books that you enjoy – if reading is how you recharge (like it is for me), don’t just read youth work and youth ministry books. This can be especially challenging if you’re undertaking coursework – I know the last thing you want to do is read more. Find some good fiction or a biography to spend some quiet time recharging your batteries.

    Keep Reflecting

    • Get a journal and reflect on your practice – take the time to think about what went well and what could be improved after your sessions.
    • Spend time with your volunteers after a session – find out from them if there’s anything that can be improved for the next session. This can be done through conversations with them or via session evaluations.
    • Find a way to receive workplace supervision – reflect with your supervisor or colleagues, or contact us to find out more about the virtual workplace supervision we offer.
    • Don’t just reflect ‘on action’ after the fact, reflect ‘in action’ during youth work sessions – if something isn’t working, change it now; don’t wait for the whole session to be a wash and then just make changes next time.

    Keep Reaching Out

    • Find a mentor – Ben Kerns wrote about the importance of having a mentor for your practice this week.
    • Attend conferences (both youth work related and non-youth work related) – Adam McLane wrote about the benefits of attending conferences that aren’t in your subject area last week.
    • Watch other youth workers in your organization and area that are great and learn from them – I wrote about what I learned from a fellow youth worker I worked with in 2011.
    • Learn from youth workers in different niches – There’s still a lot you can learn from people, even if they don’t do the same type of youth work as you. Check out our interviews with youth workers from around the world to discover more about these different types of youth work.
    • Don’t assume you know it all – keep asking questions for our Q and A section.

    Question: What tips do you have for how someone can become a better youth worker? We’d love to hear your advice in the comments below.

    You can also connect with us by:

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    Water Balloon Dodgeball – Youth Group Games

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    Water Balloon Dodgeball
    Image courtesy of Steve Wilhelm, Flickr

    If you need a fun youth group game idea, why not try playing a twist on a youth group classic – Water Balloon Dodgeball.

    Here’s how to play it:

    Resources

    • Water balloons – at least 5 per young person
    • Buckets / large tubs
    • Cones / markers
    • Towels

    Location

    For this game you’ll need a fairly large open space outdoors, especially if you have a large youth group.

    Due to all the running around and potential for youth falling over, it’s best if this is played on grass.

    Preparation

    • Place a couple of cones at one end of the playing area and a couple of cones at the other end
    • Fill up all the water balloons and place in the buckets. Also fill the buckets with water to reduce the chance of the balloons bursting prematurely
    • Place the buckets in the middle of the playing area

    Water Balloon Dodgeball Rules

    • All youth should stand at one end of the playing area behind the cones
    • When you say go, they have to run to the other end while you throw water balloons at them
    • If they get hit by a balloon before reaching the other end, they’re out
    • Once all remaining players are lined up the other side, say go and have them run back while you continue throwing water balloons at them

    Winner

    The last young person who’s managed to dodge being hit by a balloon.

    Prize

    Offer the ultimate prize for winning this version of dodgeball and allow the winner to throw the remaining water balloons at you (and your volunteers if they’re game!)

    If you have enough balloons left over, you could instead play a leaders game of water balloon dodgeball, with the youth who won taking your place as the thrower.

    Tip

    For extremely large youth groups, you might need to have some of your volunteers help you with the throwing.

    If you liked this idea, check out all our other youth group games, including many more that involve water.

    Question: Can you think of any other ways you could play Water Balloon Dodgeball? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

    You can also connect with us by:

    1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
    2. Following us on Twitter
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    4. Signing up to our RSS feed

     

    How To Make An Easter Pinata Cake

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    Easter Pinata CakeIf you want to make some fun Easter food for your youth group, here’s a great idea that Shae’s done for all three of her Girl Scout troops this last week – make an Easter pinata cake.

    It’s really simple to make and will blow the mind of your young people when they cut into it to find loads of candy.

    Here’s how to make an Easter pinata cake:

    Ingredients

    • 2 x cake mix (plus any additional ingredients required for that, such as eggs, oil, etc)
    • 2 x tubs of cake frosting
    • Food coloring
    • Candy (jelly beans, M&Ms, small chocolate eggs and Tootsie Rolls work well for this)

    Recipe

    1. Make two separate cakes using the two mixes. Bake these in glass bowls so that the bases of them are rounded – the bowls also need to be the same size. Lightly grease the inside of the bowls and then sprinkle flour all around the inside before adding the cake mix – this will make it easier to remove them.

    2. Once baked, remove them from the bowls and allow them to cool – they should look like this:

    Easter Pinata Cake 1

    3. Once cooled, hollow out the inside of both cakes, leaving approximately one inch around the sides and at the base:

    Easter Pinata Cake 2

    4. Put one tub of frosting in a bowl, add some food coloring and mix together. Put the other tub of frosting in a bowl, add a different color and mix together. Alternatively, just buy pre-colored frosting!

    5. Cover one of the cake bases with one color of frosting, then go over with the other color:

    Easter Pinata Cake 3

    6. Fill the cake with candy so that it’s heaped at the top:

    Easter Pinata Cake 4

    7. Add the other hollowed out cake to the top:

    Easter Pinata Cake 5

    8. Cover this other cake with both colors of frosting and voila – an Easter pinata cake:

    Easter Pinata Cake

    As you can see from the picture above, Shae also added glittery sprinkles as it was for girls – if you have boys in your group, they probably won’t have quite the same appreciation for sparkly stuff.

    When you’re ready to cut open the Easter pinata cake, make sure all your youth can see it – they’ll love seeing the candy fall out:

    Easter Pinata Cake 6

    Happy Easter!

     

    12 Earth Day Activities For Students

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    Earth Day activities for studentsEarth Day is on April 22 each year. If you’re wanting to plan some Earth Day activities for students, here are 12 great ideas for activities you can do with them, whether they’re elementary, middle school or high school students:

    1. Litter Picking

    Make a positive impact on your local area by going litter picking. This is not only a great team building opportunity for your young people, but can also be used as a fundraiser.

    2. Earth Day Scavenger Hunt

    To make the litter picking competitive, plan it as a scavenger hunt where teams race to find various items of trash. You can find a free scavenger hunt list here.

    3. Posters & Flyers

    If you do decide to go litter picking, try to get other people in the community involved to maximize the cleanup effort. Get your students to design some posters and flyers to advertise what they’ll be doing.

    4. Tree Planting

    If your church, community center or school has some land that’s not being used, have the young people plant some trees.

    5. Vegetable Patch

    For a project that will extend beyond Earth Day, plant a vegetable patch. Get the youth to take care of the vegetables and use them to make snacks or meals together – see our free session plan on how to teach youth meal planning for some further ideas.

    6. Recycle

    This can easily be tied in with the litter picking activities, as there’s a good chance that much of the trash they pick up can be recycled.

    Encourage them to bring in recyclable materials from home, particularly if their household doesn’t normally recycle items.

    7. Visit A Recycling Center

    Take your students to a local recycling center to learn about the recycling process and why this is so important. If you’ve been collecting items to be recycled, take these along as the youth group may be able to earn a little money in doing so.

    8. Mind Map

    Organize a brainstorming / mind mapping session looking at how to consume less. Split the group into three teams and have one team research and identify ways to reduce their consumption, the second team how they can reuse more items and the third team how they can recycle more.

    Once they’re done, get each team to present their findings to the rest of the group, with their fellow students adding their own suggestions afterwards.

    9. Earth Day Word Search

    For younger students, create a word search using Earth Day-themed words. You can quickly and easily create free word searches using this free tool from Discovery Education.

    10. Events

    For US residents, check out the EPA website for Earth Day activities going on in your state that you can take the young people to.

    11. Hike

    Go on a hike in a state park, in the mountains or anywhere else close by where students can enjoy nature.

    12. Zoo / Aquarium

    Another way the young people can enjoy nature is by taking a trip to a zoo or aquarium. If you go on April 22, there’s a good chance they’ll also be doing some kind of special Earth Day event.

    Questions: What other Earth Day activities for students can you think of? What do you have planned for your youth group on April 22? Let us know in the comments below.

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