Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

40 Youth Retreat Theme Ideas

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Youth retreat theme ideasAt Youth Workin’ It, we know it can be hard to come up with youth retreat theme ideas. To make your life easier, here is a list of 40 possible youth retreat theme ideas that you can use and then craft into youth retreat aims by making them SMART.

We get a mix of youth workers coming to this website – some that work for churches and others that work for youth agencies, community organizations and charities. We’ve therefore crafted a list of easily adaptable youth retreat themes, whether your youth residential or youth retreat is faith-based or not.

If you find these youth retreat theme ideas helpful, you’ll love our book – How To Plan A Youth Retreat. It helps guide you through each step when planning a youth retreat and also gives a list of 85 youth retreat theme ideas.

  1. Poverty
  2. Self-image
  3. Dating
  4. Forgiveness
  5. Bullying
  6. Relationships
  7. Love
  8. Peer pressure
  9. Peace
  10. Kindness
  11. Integrity
  12. Families
  13. Joy
  14. Substance abuse
  15. Physical health
  16. Patience
  17. Worry
  18. Helping others
  19. Christmas
  20. Sex
  21. Global issues
  22. Internet
  23. Accountability
  24. Self-control
  25. Hope
  26. Confidence
  27. Money
  28. Gossip
  29. School
  30. Making decisions
  31. Justice
  32. Temptation
  33. Anger management
  34. Reconciliation
  35. Honesty
  36. Team building
  37. Making a difference
  38. Loyalty
  39. Friends
  40. College/University

**Don’t forget that we’ve published a book to help anyone planning a youth retreat. Find out more about How To Plan A Youth Retreat here**

Question: What’s a youth retreat theme that’s worked well for you? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Create A Youth Work Session Plan – Part 2

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How to create a youth work session planLast week we shared the first 7 items to include when creating a youth work session plan.

Here are the other 7 items I include in my youth session plans – not only do they help me plan accurately for most eventualities in a session, they provide a log for monitoring and evaluation that helps with my reporting for internal and external stakeholders.

 

  1. Aims – The goal for each activity (e.g. Ball Name Game – Each person to learn the names of everyone else in the group)
  2. Objectives – Identify how you know the goal was met (e.g. 100% participation in activity). Remember to set SMART Targets or SMARTER Targets
  3. Teaching Syle or Group Facilitation Method – Write down if it’s a group discussion, individual activity, worksheet or lecture-style activity. This helps me to mix up the activities for each youth work session, ensuring we don’t just have discussions or only activities
  4. Learning Style – We’ll talk more about youth learning styles in coming posts, but I would identify if an activity was designed for auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners. This helps keep activities relevant for all learners, ensuring maximum learning potential
  5. Risk Assessment – Does the activity need a risk assessment? If so, you can link to the document that includes the risk assessment
  6. Notes – A section to jot down ideas that you might want to make sure you cover during the activity
  7. Session Evaluation – A youth work session evaluation should be done to evaluate each activity at the end of the session with the other staff available (and youth evaluations) to inform future programs and keep records for reporting.
Question: What do you include in your youth work session plans? Let us and other youth workers know in the comments below.

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10 Reasons To Run A Youth Retreat

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10 reasons to run a youth retreatBefore planning a youth retreat, it’s worth asking yourself “What do we want to achieve with this retreat?” You may only have one youth retreat objective, or you may have several:

  1. There’s a theme you want to cover over a weekend
  2. You’ve noticed that your youth develop a deeper faith while at youth retreats (if the retreat is run by a church)
  3. There are a number of new youth in your group and you want them to have an opportunity to bond
  4. You and other helpers want a chance to build a deeper relationship with the young people – something that happens more easily at a youth retreat
  5. Your church or organization runs a youth retreat every year, so the students would be disappointed if there wasn’t one
  6. You want to organize something fun that the youth can invite their friends to
  7. You want to celebrate your students graduating
  8. Your young people are from low-income families and so wouldn’t normally have a chance to get away
  9. Your group is getting a new leader or youth pastor and a youth retreat would provide a good time for them to be introduced
  10. You want to book a guest speaker to come and speak to your young people and a weekend retreat would be the ideal time

If you have a clear objective of what you want to achieve, you’ll be a lot more focused on what you need to do to make the youth retreat a success. It’ll give you a clearer idea of what kind of retreat center to book, how much it’ll cost, what activities you can do and how you should promote it.

Having a vision of what you want to achieve will also inspire other adults to help you lead the youth retreat and will increase interest among the students. Parents will also be more supportive, as you’ll be able to tell them how their children will benefit from the time away.

**We’ve now published a book to help anyone planning a youth retreat. Find out more about How To Plan A Youth Retreat here**

Question: What are some reasons you run youth retreats? Let us know 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
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed