Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Live Below The Line – Youth Group Activities

By Leave a Comment

Live Below The Line Youth Group Activities
Breakfast on a $1.50 daily budget

Live Below The Line is a global campaign that seeks to both raise awareness about extreme poverty and raise money in order to make a difference for people living in that situation.

This week’s session plan idea therefore has some ideas for youth group activities to take part in this campaign.

What’s involved?

Extreme poverty is currently defined as having to live on $1.50 a day. The Live Below The Line campaign therefore encourages people to spend five days living on $1.50 a day, so a total of $7.50 over the course of the five days.

Although this would normally include all costs like housing, clothing, transport, etc, for the purpose of the campaign participants only have to restrict their $1.50 spending to food and drink.

The US part of the campaign is being run from April 29 to May 3 2013, but if this doesn’t provide enough time to prepare the following activities, your youth group could always participate during another 5 day period.

So here are some suggested youth group activities to help your young people have a more tangible appreciation for what life is like when living on such a small amount of money.

Activity 1 – Video

Watch a video which explains a little more about Live Below The Line. We’ve embedded one below featuring Hugh Jackman, but there are many more featuring Sophia Bush, Josh Groban and others.

n.b. This video is aimed at Australians, so gives the figure as $2 which is the Australian Dollar equivalent.

Activity 2 – Meal Planning

Sit down with your youth and plan out some meals that they might be able to afford on a $1.50 a day budget

To prepare for this, go to a grocery store and price out various staple foods and ingredients. Make a note of the:

  • Price per package
  • Weight of package
  • Portion size

This will enable you to calculate the cost per portion in advance. Create a worksheet with all the portion size prices so that the young people can pick and choose the different ingredients they need for each meal.

Here are some suggestions for food items to include:

  • Pasta
  • Rice
  • Baked potatoes
  • Bananas
  • Breakfast cereal
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Cheap cuts of meat
  • Canned tuna
  • Lentils
  • Vegetables
  • Ramen noodles
  • Canned tomatoes
  • Bread
  • Butter

Stipulate that they have to plan for three meals a day. Each meal doesn’t have to total $0.50, but they’re not allowed to exceed $1.50 per day.

See our previous session plan about meal planning for some further ideas on how to help young people learn how to do this.

Activity 3 – Cooking

Even if your youth group can’t fully participate in the entire campaign, cook and eat a meal together. For this part, allow $0.50 per person for ingredients.

This might cause some conflicts between youth who want to eat different things or who don’t like the meal that’s been chosen. Use this as an opportunity to discuss what it must be like for families who have to live on such a strict budget for their entire lives. Encourage them to try to find a meal that everyone’s able to agree upon.

Activity 4 – Fundraiser

Plan a youth group fundraiser as an activity to raise money for people who have to live on such a low budget every day of the year. The Live Below The Line website has a list of partner organizations who the money can be donated to.

A good option could be a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, restricting the portion size spending to $1.50 per person. You can then highlight to the attendees that the meal they just ate would be all that 1.4 billion people worldwide would be able to afford for that day’s food.

Try to charge as much as possible for the meal so that you can maximize the amount raised. If 50 people paid $10 per head, this would raise $425 after the food costs have been taken out. Arrange a collection for the attendees to donate further to the cause.

Activity 5 – Youth Retreat

If you’re planning a youth retreat, consider using a hunger theme, limiting the food spending to $1.50 per person per day. This will give the youth a much better idea of what it’s really like to live on such a low food budget and how bland and lacking in nutrition meals will tend to be.

This will also help reduce the cost of the youth retreat as you’ll need less money for the food budget. Charge the same amount for the retreat as you normally would though, using the additional money to either subsidize the cost for less well-off youth, or donate the rest to a charity that works with people living in extreme poverty.

Questions: Are you taking part in the Live Below The Line campaign? What kind of youth group activities are you planning? 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

 

3 Important Reasons To Help Youth Think Globally

By Leave a Comment

Global Youth WorkTomorrow I’ll be speaking at Open Boston.

There are going to be a range of topics explored by talented youth workers from across the North East. My session is going to identify ways to help students (as young people in middle and high school are commonly referred to in the US – which means college / university-aged students in the UK) think globally.

My session is going to be very practical, so there won’t be a lot of background as to why it’s important for young people to think globally. So, if you plan to attend my session tomorrow – you get a little teaser today! If you’re not able to attend, you might still find it helpful to understand why helping the youth you work with think globally is an important part of your practice.

Firstly, you may want to acclimate yourself to what Global Youth Work is – go ahead, I’ll wait.

OK, ready?!  So now that you know a little more about where I’m coming from when I talk about Global Youth Work, let’s talk further about why it’s important:

1. It helps fight xenophobic and nationalistic ideas

While having a positive and patriotic view of your country is good, thinking that all your cultural ideas and norms are the best and being afraid of anything different isn’t so good.

Exploring global issues with your youth will help combat these fears and help them to appreciate the differences in each of us.

2. It helps youth learn more about themselves

Sometimes things are a little too close to home. We need perspective to help us learn more about our ideas and values. Global Youth Work helps create the necessary ‘distance’ between issues that are sensitive to us, while still allowing for a productive discussion about them.

For example, a student who is being sexually abused at home may not want to address the issue as it’s too personal. Looking at sexual abuse from a global perspective and how it affects others may therefore help them work through their own situation internally, bringing them to a place whereby they’re able to disclose their abuse.

3. It helps students develop and explore faith issues

(For a good explanation of this, see pages 20 & 24 of Richard Stearns’ book The Hole In Our Gospel) For my faith-based colleagues, the Barna Research Group says that only about 6% of people who are not Christians by the age of eighteen will become Christians later in life.

Faith that is lived out through actions by understanding global issues and working to make a difference to change them can be a great testimony for others who do not have a faith in Christ.

Also, according to the Poverty And Justice Bible there are over 2,000 verses about poverty and justice in the Bible, so while it may not be God’s only message to us in the scriptures, it is certainly a big one.

These are just three of the reasons why students need help thinking globally. Tomorrow, if you’re attending Open Boston, we’ll explore some techniques on how to do it. Otherwise, check back as we will have posts in the future on this topic.

Question: What are some reasons you think it’s important for students to think globally? Share your thoughts in the comments below- or tweet your thoughts with the hashtag #OpenBoston.

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

 

Enough Food For Everyone IF – Youth Work Session Idea

By Leave a Comment

Hunger Youth Work Session Idea(Edit: Since this post was published, it looks like the Enough Food For Everyone IF website has been taken down. We’ve therefore removed any dead links – apologies that this reduced the usefulness of this session idea)

Almost one billion people worldwide suffer from hunger, so there’s a new campaign that’s started in the UK called Enough Food For Everyone IF.

Purpose

The purpose of this campaign is to put pressure on the leaders of the G8 countries to commit to fixing four areas that impact hunger. The G8 is made up of countries with some of the largest economies in the world:

  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Russia
  • UK
  • USA

The European Union is also represented at the G8, so a commitment by all these nations could achieve a big difference.

The four areas that Enough Food For Everyone IF are seeking change in are:

  1. Aid – Give aid to stop children dying from hunger. Help the poorest have enough food to live.
  2. Land – Stop poor farmers being forced off their land. Grow crops to provide food, not fuel.
  3. Tax – Stop companies dodging taxes in poor countries so millions can be freed from hunger.
  4. Transparency – Governments and companies must be honest about their role in the food system.

Video

Enough Food For Everyone IF have produced the short video below explaining about the campaign.

Who Is Involved?

Many large charities like World Vision are supporting this initiative, with many different faith groups and non-faith groups also being involved.

This is therefore a great example of organizations putting aside differences to work for the common good.

Free Session Resources

There are many different resources available on the Enough Food For Everyone website that you can use as youth group activities to address the issue of hunger:

  • Case Studies – This PDF has numerous case studies about people suffering from hunger in different countries around the world. This resource suggests splitting up into smaller groups to have the young people look at just one case study, but if you only have a small group in the first place you could just as easily look at all the case studies together.
  • Plate Activity – If you’re in the UK, this activity involves having your youth decorate a plate with their own thoughts, ideas and solutions to global hunger. You then send the plates to one of three UK based organizations, who will then send them on to the Prime Minister.
  • Learning Resources – This page contains links to 30 different free resources from charities like Oxfam and Action Aid that address the issues of Aid, Land, Tax and Transparency that this campaign is focused on.

What Are Key Stages?

There are references to Key Stage levels 2-4 on their website, particularly on the Learning Resources page. This refers to the age-appropriateness of the activities for students. Here are the ages that the Key Stages relate to:

  • Key Stage 2 – 7-11 year olds
  • Key Stage 3 – 11-14 year olds
  • Key Stage 4 – 14-16 years old

Therefore, if you’re working with teens, the Key Stage 2 activities will probably be too “childish” for your youth, so pick the Key Stage 3 or 4 activities instead.

Other Hunger-Related Resources

We’ve previously published a free youth retreat theme based on hunger, so that has many other youth group activities that you can use to explore this global issue.

In the comments on that post, TJ’s also referred to another organization called Kids Can Make A Difference that seeks to enable youth to make a difference about hunger.

Question: What other hunger-related resources have you used or know about? We’d love to find out about them, so 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

 

5 Thanksgiving Activities For Students To Get Them Thinking

By Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving activities for students
If nothing else, your young people can be thankful their parents don’t have a baby photo of them dressed like this

Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity for getting young people to reflect on everything they have, particularly on a global scale.

This week’s youth work session plan idea therefore has some Thanksgiving activities for students to get them thinking about money, family, friends, freedom, possessions and anything else that they might take for granted. These ideas can be used no matter what size your youth group is or could also be used in a school lesson.

Thanksgiving Activity 1

Give each of the students a stack of post-it notes and a pen. Ask them to write down things that they’re thankful for, with one thing on each post-it. n.b. Don’t offer any suggestions of things they should be thankful for at this stage.

After about 5-10 minutes, get all the young people to stick the answers they have on a wall.

Thanksgiving Activity 2

Once they’ve stuck their post-it notes up, have the students watch a video that focuses on poverty around the world. There are all kinds of videos you could use – full-length movies, documentaries, charity appeals, etc.

Another option would be to use the two videos below. They’re both about 4 minutes long, but should get them thinking about how fortunate they are compared to billions of other people. (Thanks to Terry Linhart who’d brought the videos to my attention via Ken Castor’s blog).

Thanksgiving Activity 3

After they’ve watched whatever video you’ve chosen to use, repeat the first activity – have the students write down anything else they can think of that they’re thankful for. There’s a good chance that the video will prompt a number of additional answers.

Thanksgiving Activity 4

There should now be many different answers stuck to the wall. Read some (or all) of them out and discuss with the students why they’re thankful for all these things.

Thanksgiving Activity 5

The previous four activities should have helped your young people realize that they have a lot they can be thankful for, especially compared to other people around the world.

If the youth are feeling empathetic towards those who are less fortunate than they are, discuss ways in which they can do something to make a difference. This could include:

  1. Taking part in a 30 Hour Famine
  2. Organizing a youth group fundraiser, where the proceeds are given to a charity
  3. Planning a Slum Survivor weekend retreat
  4. Identifying ways they can volunteer in the local community
  5. Setting up their own charity or non-profit that addresses a cause that they’re passionate about

Question: Do you have any other ideas of good Thanksgiving activities for students? We’d love to hear your thoughts 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

 

How To Create Youth That Are The Right Kind Of Pathetic

By 1 Comment

Youth work empathy sympathy
Use empathy to help your youth define necessity

The photo to the right, and various others similar to it, have been doing the rounds this holiday season.

The main reason for a photo like this is to create strong, visceral feelings. These photos are meant to make us realize our own excess in comparison to so many people’s impoverishment. They’re designed to make you feel something – most likely guilt.

When viewing them in their most altruistic light, they might effect some change in your life, through your giving and/or spending habits. They’re designed to evoke sympathy for the poor, starving children in the picture. To guilt you into action.

And they often work.

How many telethons, photo campaigns and commercials have we seen in the geographical North with just such images on them? Millions of dollars are raised each year through these methods.

Surely if they worked as a long term solution to the problem, we would have seen them once and that would have been enough.

But every year, you see the same telethon, every Red Nose Day, every BBC Children in Need campaign the same images and stories are shared, tears are shed and money is raised. Only to be done again in another 12 short months.

It’s very easy to see the same thing with our youth. Parents say ‘eat your peas – there are starving children in Africa’ or we take our youth on a mission trip or community service trip and see them cry and come home radically changed for a few weeks, or best case scenario a few months, but gradually over time they slip back into their ‘old ways’ until the next trip.

I am generalizing a little – there are some youth that are so profoundly changed during their time abroad or just by reading a story that they make a decision and make a real difference in the lives of others. But for the majority, the former is much more likely to reflect their true experiences.

This is because those images and experiences create sympathy rather than empathy. We need to focus on helping our youth develop empathy. There are many people who see sympathy and empathy as synonyms.

However, sympathy actually relates to the heart feelings about something, and we all know (looking back on our ‘lifelong loves’ when we were 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23…..) that the heart is fickle. When you feel sympathy, you feel bad for someone else, but you aren’t able to really ‘experience’ their pain on any level that is going to cause you to change your behavior for the long term. When we show these images to youth it’s a shock, and when the shock wears off they’re left with their old habits that they fall back into.

Empathy means that you get it in your head, you can see yourself in their situation and understand how truly awful it is, you understand the feelings on an intellectual level and therefore are able to internalize the feelings, and use them to effect change.

When this happens with our youth, rather than just feeling bad, they can understand what kinds of commonalities they share with the other person. They’re able to ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ and when they do this it causes long term change to their behaviors.

When you’re able to help a youth see that the child or teen in the picture likes the same sports or plays the same games as they do but is also suffering from the loss of their mother to HIV, you can help them develop empathy. By helping them identify their own feelings of deepest loss, relate that back to how this youth might be feeling and help them create an action plan to make a change.

Activities like the 30-hour famine can help create empathy because youth get to truly feel what hunger feels like. Is it the same as the famine that is actually going on in many places around the world? No, of course not. But it will begin to provide an intellectual understanding of what hunger is, rather than just an emotional response to a photo.

Question: Do you think empathy is important in youth work, or is sympathy enough? We’d love to hear your thoughts 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