As youth are moving towards independence, they’re going to be provided with more and more opportunities to make informed decisions. How they make these decisions can be something that you help teach them during your youth work sessions.

One skill that young people might need to be taught in a structured way is problem solving. The SODAS problem solving method is a tool that can help youth learn the process, that most of us do naturally in our adulthood, to solve problems and identify solutions. This can be a particularly useful skill if you work with youth who haven’t had a caring adult in their lives to teach them basic life skills.

The SODAS problem solving method identifies:

1. The Situation
2. A few Options
3. The Disadvantages of each option
4. The Advantages of each option
5. The best Solution

You can make learning about SODAS problem solving more fun by trying the following activities:

1. Media Project – Help your youth create a film showing the possible outcomes, disadvantages and advantages to a situation they’ve encountered or that they make up.
2. Frozen Pictures or Role Plays – Give your youth a situation or have them identify one of their own. Have them create frozen pictures or role plays of the situation and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each option the group presents, while viewing the frozen picture or role play.
3. Group Discussions – Some youth won’t want to do media projects or frozen pictures and role plays, so just having group discussions may be enough. Talk through the various scenarios and discuss the options and their potential outcomes.

No matter how you spice up this topic, you’ll help your youth become better prepared for adulthood and making informed decisions by teaching the skill of SODAS problem solving.

Have you found this idea useful? We’ve got plenty more free youth work session plan ideas.

Question: Have you ever used the SODAS problem solving method with your youth? How did it go? What tips can you give other youth workers? Let us know in the comments below.

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