Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

3 Reasons To Take Part In Youth Retreat Activities

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Youth retreat activities
Dave realized he wasn’t dressed properly for paintball

Q: I’m planning some youth retreat activities for later this year and have organized several activities for the young people that I don’t want to take part in myself. Do you think this matters?

A: I’m afraid it does matter! There are many reasons why it’s good to take part in youth retreat activities, so here are three of them:

1. It Builds Trust And Relationships

Youth retreats are a great opportunity for team building and bonding – not just for youth to bond with other youth, but also for them to bond with you and other volunteers.

If you don’t participate in activities, you’re therefore missing out on a chance to form stronger relationships that will last beyond just the weekend that you’re at the retreat center.

Your youth will also respect you more for getting involved with the activities and not making them do stuff that you’re not willing to do yourself.

2. It Develops You

Many youth retreat activities involve encouraging young people to push the boundaries of what they’re comfortable doing, perhaps by having them face their fears or getting them to try something new.

The reason you plan these activities for them is to help them grow as a person. If it’s beneficial for their development, it’ll be equally as beneficial for you.

In one of her previous roles, Shae used to plan retreat activities that involved heights to push the boundaries of what the youth would normally do. This would involve high ropes courses, rock climbing, etc and she’d take part too.

The thing is, Shae hates heights. She struggled to do all of these activities but always pushed through it as she knew that if she expected young people to do something, she needed to do it too.

3. It’s Fun

The other reason why you’ve probably planned these activities at the retreat is because they’re fun, so why not have some fun yourself!

Even if it’s likely to be more terrifying than fun, simply having you take part will increase the fun for your youth. At the very least, it’ll give them a good laugh at your expense!

So whatever the reason is that you don’t want to take part, I’d highly recommend rethinking it and booking yourself in for each of the activities.

Question: Have you ever been in a situation like this? What did you do? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Deal With Unacceptable Behavior At A Youth Retreat

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Youth Retreat
If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them – maybe you can hire the Youth Removal Team

Q: The last time I planned a youth retreat, we had a young person who had completely unacceptable behavior throughout the weekend. It disrupted the entire event, but he had to remain at the retreat center as we didn’t have enough volunteers to take him home and his parents wouldn’t come to pick him up.

What’s the best thing to do if something like this ever happens again?

A: It’s always a shame when one young person spoils things for the whole youth group. There are two steps you can take though to help ensure that if this does happen again, you can deal with it effectively.

1. Have A Youth Behavior Policy In Place

I’m not sure if you already have a youth behavior policy – if not, get one put in place for the retreat ASAP. This would detail some examples of unacceptable behavior so that both your youth and their parents know what’s expected of them.

You’re not going to be able to put together an exhaustive list, but some rules that you may wish to include would be things like:

  • No alcohol or drugs
  • Boys aren’t allowed in girls’ rooms and vice versa
  • No pornography
  • No weapons
  • No violence

This policy should be provided to both the young people and their parents, also giving an idea of what consequences can be expected. Some behaviors may have a zero tolerance policy, so discovering a weapon would have an automatic consequence of the youth being sent home.

Other behaviors may result in warnings, such as a verbal warning, then a reminder warning, then being sent home. This gives the young person an opportunity to correct their behavior and shows that you’re fair in how you deal with situations.

Read this post for more ideas on how to deal with youth behavior and putting the policy in place. In particular, make sure both the young people and their parents sign an agreement to the behavior policy in advance of the youth retreat. This means they know for certain what will and won’t be accepted.

2. Have A Youth Removal Team

As you mentioned in your question, you had no way of taking the young person home following their unacceptable behavior. It can be hard getting enough volunteers to help with a youth retreat in the first place, so you often can’t spare any to take a young person home, particularly as this might mean that you’d have unsafe ratios.

The solution to this problem is to have a youth removal team in place beforehand. This would consist of two or three volunteers who aren’t at the retreat, but who are on call to come to the retreat center in the event that you need them to take a young person home.

For child protection, we’d recommend having two people take the young person home, at least one of which should be the same sex as the youth.

Having this team in place will help ensure that there is minimal disruption to the youth retreat and means that the rest of your youth group don’t miss out on an exciting weekend due to the behavior of just one person.

Question: Have you ever had to send a young person home from a youth retreat due to their behavior? How did you deal with it? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

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The Youth Retreat Volunteer You Need To Have

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Youth Retreat VolunteerQ: I’m planning a youth retreat and am trying to make a list of roles I need volunteers to fill. Are there any roles people don’t normally consider that I might have missed?

A: There are many different roles that need filling by volunteers on a youth retreat. We’ve outlined many of these in our youth retreat book, but here is one that you may not have considered:

Designated Emergency Contact

We’re not talking about having emergency contact details for parents and guardians, although that is something that should always be included on the registration form.

Instead, we mean having someone who’s a designated emergency contact for the youth retreat for both parents and yourself. This should be an adult who’s available 24 hours a day for the duration of the retreat. They don’t have to be one of your regular volunteers, just someone who’s willing to perform this role.

Phone Numbers

This responsible adult should be given phone numbers for:

  • All the parents
  • Yourself
  • All the other volunteers at the youth retreat
  • The retreat center
  • Any other location you might visit (e.g. theme park, climbing center, high ropes course, etc)

Why You Would Call Them

If you have any emergencies at the youth retreat and need to contact parents, you can call this person who can then communicate with the relevant parents. This means that you only have to explain the situation once and can focus on the emergency on hand, rather than potentially having to call several parents.

Why Parents Would Call Them

If parents have an emergency (e.g. a family member has passed away unexpectedly), they can call the emergency contact who can then call you.

Having someone perform this role ensures that you won’t be interrupted at inopportune times by parents who don’t have an emergency, but who just want to make sure that their little Johnny isn’t feeling homesick. This middleman can therefore make a judgment call to decide if they should contact you immediately.

For situations that aren’t an emergency, you could pre-arrange a time for this volunteer to call you each day – one that fits in with your youth retreat schedule, such as during free time or at lunch.

Recruiting a designated emergency contact as a stay-at-home volunteer therefore helps ensure you have a safe youth trip by having an effective communication structure, while also ensuring you don’t get interrupted by non-emergency phone calls.

Question: What one youth retreat volunteer do you consider to be essential? Let us know in the comments below.

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Top 12 Of ’12: No. 7 – Fruits Of The Spirit Youth Retreat Theme

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Top 12 Of '12: No. 7 - Fruits Of The Spirit Youth Retreat ThemeWe’re currently counting down the most read posts on the Youth Workin’ It blog in 2012. Today we have:

No. 7 – Fruits Of The Spirit Youth Retreat Theme

Our youth retreat themes tag is actually one of the most popular pages of our blog, having thousands of visitors over the last year. Of all the retreat themes though, this one focusing on the Fruits Of The Spirit has proved to be the most popular.

It contains all kinds of different suggestions – activities, games, a skit, meeting ideas as well as fruity food ideas.

Check out this youth retreat theme here.