Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Youth Using Skills To Benefit Others – Youth Group Activity

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Youth using skills to benefit others
What skills do your young people have?

If you’re a regular reader of the Youth Workin’ It blog, you’ll know by now that we’re big fans of youth empowerment and youth participation.

This week’s youth work session plan idea aims to build on that and help show youth how they can make a difference in the lives of others.

Session Purpose

This activity is based on a video that highlights how one young person from Sierra Leone is using his skills to benefit his community.

The purpose of this session idea is therefore to get your youth to consider what skills they have and how they can use them to benefit their own community.

Session Outline

Show the video below to your youth group. Once they’ve watched it, use the discussion questions below – or your own – to explore some of the areas covered in the video and to help inspire your young people to take action.

Video

First, watch this video with your young people:

Discussion Questions

  1. Kelvin loves inventing – what do you love doing?
  2. What job would you want to do in the future, even if it meant you hardly earned anything?
  3. Kelvin’s taught himself how take broken electronics and fix them. What things do you actively seek to learn outside of school / college?
  4. He made a generator and created his own radio station to give a voice to other youth. What could you do to give a voice to other young people? (If they struggle to come up with any ideas, consider suggesting areas they might be able to get involved in, like sticking up for other students who are bullied or for youth who are trafficked).
  5. David said about African countries: “Unless we have a host of young people who can think at any given point that here’s a challenge, here’s a problem, here’s an opportunity to solve it, there won’t be steep growth in national development”. How true do you think that is in your own country?
  6. Kelvin’s known as DJ Focus, as he believes that “if you focus, you can do an invention perfectly“. What are some things you focus on that you can do perfectly?
  7. Are these areas that benefit you or other people in some way?
  8. His Mom was excited as people said good comments about him. Is this something that happens to you?
  9. If not, what could you do to change that?
  10. Everything he learned at MIT, he wanted to share with his friends, colleagues and loved ones. What do you know that you could share with others to benefit them?
  11. David runs an innovation camp in Sierra Leone that seeks to have young people identify some of the problems in their community and challenges them to come up with solutions. What are some problems in your own community?
  12. Now that you’ve identified some of the problems, what can you do to solve them?

Question: What other discussion questions would you use with your young people based on this video? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

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Cell Phone Etiquette For Teenagers

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Cell phone etiquette for teenagers“You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.”

This was one of my favorite lines from the iPhone contract a mother gave her 13 year-old that has been circling the internet since Christmas. Janell Burley Hofmann had many other great suggestions for her teenage son about cell phone etiquette.

Many of your youth will have received new gadgets for Christmas, whether that be a phone, tablet, game system or MP3 player. And that is exciting! These should be celebrated, shared, explored and drooled over just for the fun of it.

Responsibility

But as that famous Spider-Man line goes: ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ (actually it was Uncle Ben – not the rice guy). It’s therefore also a great time to talk with your teenagers about cell phone etiquette – where, when and how they use the fantastic new devices.

Cell Phone Etiquette Discussion Questions

Here are a few highlights from the iPhone contract with some questions you might want to explore with your youth this new year:

1. “If you would not make a call to someone’s land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text.”

  • How late is ‘too late’ to call your friends or when is too early on the weekends?

2. “Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.”

  • Do you find that it’s easier to text something (or put it on Facebook or Twitter) rather than saying it to someone?
  • Why do you think that is?
  • What are some pros and cons to sharing things via text or face-to-face?

3. “Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else’s private parts…it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear – including a bad reputation.”

  • Have you ever said or done something online or via text that you wanted to take back?
  • How did you handle it?
  • What would you do differently next time?
  • If you were to send inappropriate photos via Snapchat, is there anything stopping the person from taking a photo of the photos, meaning they don’t only last a couple of minutes?

4. “Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you.”

  • Do you ever leave your phone (or other device) at home?
  • How does it feel?
  • What do you think might happen if you leave it at home sometimes?

5. “Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger.  Wonder without Googling.”

  • Carrying on from #4, take the time to see the world without the lens, whether that’s the lens of social media, your camera phone or your video games.
  • What are some things you like to do without technology?
  • If you can’t name anything, what is one new thing you’d like to try that doesn’t involve technology?

What we’re really talking about here is a possible session plan about basic life/social skills when it comes to technology and devices. Many youth don’t have parents who will share cell phone etiquette with them or detail some of these dangers or pitfalls. Take the time to share some of your words of wisdom so that your youth can unplug.

You also might enjoy a post that Ben Kerns wrote recently about manners.

Question: How would you address the issue of cell phone etiquette for teenagers? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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New Year’s Resolutions For Teenagers……With A Twist

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New Year's Resolutions For TeenagersIt’s almost Christmas, which means it’s almost the New Year, which means it’s time to start thinking of resolutions! Today’s youth group activity is therefore a session idea on New Year’s resolutions for teenagers…..but with a twist.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve tended to have a negative view of setting resolutions for 1 January, as they always seem to be based on depriving yourself – like you’re committing to a 365 day Lent period!

  • I’m not going to watch as much TV
  • I’m not going to eat chocolate
  • I’m not going to play video games as much
  • Etc, etc

Instead of getting your teenagers to commit to things that they won’t do, why not get them to commit to things they will do in this coming year?

Finish Year

I’ve actually stolen this idea from Jon Acuff, as at the end of last year he challenged the readers of his blog to take part in Finish Year. This is where they committed to completing various different projects or challenges throughout the year.

For example, Jon’s list was:

  1. From January 1 – February 11, I am going to finish preparing for the next Quitter Conference and make it an awesome experience for everyone who attends. (This is a big part of my job and thus requires big focus!)
  2. I am going to finish reading 12 non-fiction books this year. One per month.
  3. I am going to finish running the Nashville half marathon Saturday, April 28th in under 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  4. I am going to finish writing a new book in 2012.
  5. I am going to finish a box of thank you cards this year as a sign of my gratefulness.
  6. I am going to finish handwriting out the entire book of Proverbs in a moleskine notebook.

So sit down with the teenagers in your youth group and have them come up with their own New Year’s Resolutions in a Finish Year style. As you may have noticed above, all the commitments on the list begin with “I am going to finish….”, so make sure the young people’s start each of the items on their list in that way.

Set Teenagers Up For Success

One of the best things about this activity is that it sets teenagers up to succeed rather than fail. With normal New Year’s resolutions, people make it a few weeks (or maybe months) into the year and then they do something which means they fail the resolution, like eating chocolate when they said they wouldn’t. With alcoholics, you’d encourage them to get back on the wagon, but with resolutionists (is that even a word?!) it’s just assumed that you’ve failed and you give up and maybe try again next year.

With this commitment to finish challenges though, it’s much harder to fail. Instead of saying that they’ll give up chocolate, they may say, “I am going to finish exercising three days a week on average throughout the year”. This means that if there’s a week where they only manage to exercise one time, they can exercise four days a week for the next two weeks to get back on track – success, not failure.

How To Set Finish Year Goals

Jon gave four tips for how to set goals for this challenge (check out this post for more detailed explanations):

  1. Start small to build momentum
  2. Pick ideas from multiple parts of your life
  3. Focus on efforts, not results
  4. Make sure it matters

With teenagers, the third item on that list can be especially important. You may have a young person who doesn’t have positive self image due to their weight. They’d therefore be better off using an example like I gave above of “I am going to finish exercising three days a week on average throughout the year”, rather than “I am going to finish losing 20 lbs of weight by the end of the year.”

The reason why the first option is better is that other factors can affect result-oriented targets. For example, teenagers’ bodies change all the time, so this young person may put on a growth spurt during the year. They may therefore finish the year at exactly the same weight but because they’re now taller, the weight is more evenly distributed. They’d have “failed” the specific weight loss goal, whereas they can ensure they succeed with the results-oriented goal.

Set SMART Targets

In addition to the four tips Jon gave, make sure that their list is SMART.

Areas For Youth To Consider

Teenagers may have a hard time coming up with alternative New Year’s resolutions. Try not to come up with ideas for them, as they’ll have more ownership and commitment if they’ve come up with their challenges for themselves, rather than having someone else suggest what they should do.

Having said that, they may still struggle making their list. If so, get them to think through some of the following areas of their life that they may want to make a positive change in:

  • Physical
  • Spiritual
  • Emotional
  • School
  • Parents / siblings
  • Job
  • Spare time
  • Skills
  • Volunteering

Follow Up

Don’t run this session about setting New Year’s resolutions for teenagers and then forget to come back to it. If possible, try to discuss their list each week, or at least once per month. This will help keep your youth accountable and means that they can encourage each other if they’re struggling with their commitments.

If you’re a youth pastor and your teenagers meet as part of a small group, the first (or last)  five or ten minutes of each group is a perfect opportunity to cover this.

Use Social Media

Another option you have is to use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. to have your teens share how they’re progressing each week or month:

  • Facebook – Set up a group where they can post how they’re doing on their challenges. They’ll get notifications whenever someone posts in the group, helping keep it at the forefront of their minds each week
  • Twitter – Set up a specific hashtag for your group to use where they can share their successes
  • Google+ – Set up Hangouts each week or month to discuss how they’re getting on if you’re not going to have an opportunity to do this at your regular meetings

What Do You Think?

What ideas can you think of that would make this session on New Year’s resolutions for teenagers even more successful? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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Choose Your Own Adventure – Session Plan Idea

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Choose your own adventure - youth work session plan ideaThis week’s youth work session plan idea is a throwback to those childhood favorite books – Choose Your Own Adventure.

If you’re not familiar with these books, they start off as a normal book but with you assuming the role of the main character in the book. After a few pages, you’ll be given a choice of two or three options, with each option taking you on a different path through the book. Every few pages, you’ll be given further choices, meaning that there are dozens of different stories and endings within the book.

This activity is therefore perfect for helping young people explore the choices they make and the consequences that go along with them – an essential life skill.

Here’s how to run this session:

Resources

Preparation

Stick a long stretch of the paper roll on a wall (or stretch out on the floor).

Explain

Explain to the youth that they’ll be creating their own Choose Your Own Adventure story, explaining briefly what this is in case they don’t know.

Situation

Choose an initial situation that they might commonly find themselves in and write this on the left hand side of the paper roll.

This could involve any kind of situation, but try to choose something that might be an issue for your young people, such as:

It may be that your group of young people is together as a result of a certain issue, like substance abuse, criminal behavior, etc. If so, those would probably be a better choice for an initial situation.

It’s worth having a situation already chosen before starting the session, so that no time is spent having to reach a consensus – they’ll get a chance to choose a situation later in the session.

Identify Options & Consequences

Read out the initial situation that you’ve chosen. The young people then need to choose two different options that they’d have in that situation.

Branch out from that first situation and write down the two options they’ve come up with. Both of these choices would have consequences, so write the consequences next to each of the choices.

Next, have them come up with another two options for each of these subsequent situations that they find this in. Continue with this until there are many different ultimate conclusions. There’s no limit to how many choices and consequences you do in this activity, but see the example below for what it might look like:

Choose your own adventure example

 

Individual Situations

Once they’ve completed this activity as a group, give each young person a long stretch of the paper and a pen and get them to create their own Choose Your Own Adventure.

Encourage them to choose a situation that they struggle with – explain that no one other than you will see what they write. If you’re concerned that they’d still have a hard time being open about this, you could just as easily set it up so that they get to keep what they’ve worked on so that no one else will see it.

Discussion

Once they’ve completed this activity for themselves, discuss what they thought about it. Here are a few questions to get you started:

  • How hard did you find the activity?
  • Was it easy to think of the different choices you had in each situation sitting here?
  • Is it easy to think of the different choices you have when you’re actually in the situation?
  • How do you feel about some of the consequences you came up with?
  • What can you do in the future when you find yourself in this situation?

For similar activities that help young people with making choices, check out these other ideas:

You may also like all our other youth work session plan ideas.

Question: Do you have any additional ideas of how to run a Choose Your Own Adventure session? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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15 Important Life Skills For Teenagers

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Life Skills For Teenagers
Life skills 101 was a success

One of the things that we’re most passionate about here at Youth Workin’ It is helping young people learn and develop the life skills that they need for now and in the future.

This week’s Best Of Youth Workin’ It is therefore focusing on 15 important life skills for teenagers:

1. Communication Skills – This session idea contains many different activities to explore how people communicate, looking at both non-verbal and verbal methods of communication.

2. Financial Awareness – No matter how old your young people are, it’s never too early to start teaching them financial life skills. This post contains some ideas for how to help teenagers set a budget based on income and expenses.

3. Job Interview Techniques – Given the problem with youth unemployment around the world, it’s important for teens to know how to conduct themselves in job interviews. This post has a free and downloadable “Retweetable Interview” resource to use with your youth to help them be concise in interviews.

4. Vicious Cycle Aggression Management Technique – This activity is a creative way to get youth looking at the choices they make and the consequences of their actions. Although we suggested using the Vicious Cycle to address the issue of aggression management, it can be used in any circumstance where you want teenagers to consider the choices that they make.

5. Natural And Logical Consequences – This session plan is another way to help youth explore the consequences of their actions. It lists more than 20 common situations that teens may find themselves in, then gets them to consider what kind of natural and logical consequences would result from their choices.

6. SODAS Problem Solving – Not sodas as in beverages, SODAS as in Situation, Options, Disadvantages, Advantages and Solutions. This is great technique to give your teenagers the life skill of problem solving.

7. Meal Planning – Part 1 – This session idea actually contains enough suggested activities to last several sessions. These will help teach your youth how to plan meals, covering topics like food hygiene, food preparation, nutrition and cooking.

8. Meal Planning – Part 2 – This session idea goes beyond the basics to help teens learn how to make a weekly meal plan. This includes choosing meals, finding recipes, making shopping lists, food shopping on a budget and more.

9. Food Shopping – As you might have guessed, we think teaching young people all about food, nutrition and meal planning is an extremely important life skill to have. This session plan contains 15 different tips for when they go food shopping, then gets them to explore why these tips are important.

10. Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt – Last food-related skill for now, I promise! This scavenger hunt gets youth to find out how much branded products cost and how to identify cheaper alternatives.

11. Media Literacy Activities – Young people are bombarded with all kinds of messages in the media. This activity helps your teenagers gain the life skill of media literacy – identifying messages in different types of media and how bias and ulterior motives can affect the messages they hear.

12. Goal Setting For Teenagers – This session idea contains an activity that helps youth learn the steps to setting a goal and how to identify obstacles that they might face.

13. Stress Management – Family, friends, relationships, school, work – you name it, young people will stress over it. Help them learn to manage their stress with this relaxation technique.

14. Teaching Respect To Teenagers – This extensive session idea gets young people to consider issues surrounding the respect of other people and ways that they can develop this skill.

15. 7 Steps To Teaching Table Etiquette – It may sound strange, but many young people don’t know how to behave at a dinner table, simply because they’ve grown up in a family that doesn’t sit down and eat together there. Use these steps to help your youth learn the life skill of table etiquette.

Question: These are just 15 important life skills for teenagers, but there are plenty more. What other life skills do you think it’s important for young people to have? Share your thoughts in the comments below and we’ll try to put together free session ideas in the future based on your ideas.

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Image courtesy of Kyle Taylor