Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

How To Create Memories For Your Youth Work Supporters

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Youth work memories
Which of your youth work supporters, helpers and stakeholders can you build memories with?

We’re great at planning memorable experiences for youth.

  • A trip to remember in the wilds of South America.
  • A one-to-one mentoring session to their first ever movie theater experience.
  • An evening at a fancy restaurant or an intimate dinner party for your small group.
  • A scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts.
  • Volunteering at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.

The list goes on and on.

But how often do you invite others – particularly other stakeholders who might be advocates (or even potential donors!) for your youth work – to join you?

I know that for me it’s often my colleagues, my volunteers and me with my young people. You can create lasting memories for people who might become your biggest community champions by inviting them to join in when appropriate / possible.

Stakeholders

Possible stakeholders to include are:

  • Your organization’s management team, directors and / or board members
  • Parents
  • Donors and fundraisers
  • Community leaders
  • Law enforcement officers
  • School officials
  • Business owners
  • And many, many more!

Stakeholders don’t have to be limited to those with the money or influence in your youth work. You can also invite those who support your work but receive little praise, yet their selfless dedication to your young people clearly means they support what you do.

Our Dinner Party

I recently had the opportunity to invite my group’s van driver to join us for a dinner party. At first she hadn’t planned to come inside, but with high temperatures and a short drop off / pick up time she decided to come along.

She had such a great time.

She loved seeing the young people using their manners, enjoying their dinner and teaching them skills she had long ago taught her own (now grown) children. She said at least four times how much she appreciated what we did for the youth and how grateful she was to be a part of it. She commented a few times about how she was going to write about her adventure on her blog. She was genuinely really excited to see the program from the inside and to get to interact with the youth.

And all it took to make her feel like a part of the program was an invitation – and now we have an even bigger community advocate and volunteer.

Other Stakeholders

Here are some examples of people to consider inviting along as a thank you, or as a chance for them to really see what you do:

  • Bus or van drivers
  • Catering or hospitality team members
  • Janitorial staff
  • Sunday school teachers or elders
  • That person who comes and unlocks the center each week
  • The people within the neighboring organizations, businesses or houses that are right next to your center
  • Funding team members who actually apply for your grants and therefore fund your programs

Question: How do you include stakeholders and other community members in your youth programming? How could you invite them to share lasting memories with your youth? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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Image courtesy of Welsh Mackem, Flickr

 

Dealing With Unsupportive Parents – 4 Tips For Youth Workers

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Dealing with unsupportive parents
Some relationships need a lot more ‘scaffolding’ to make them work than others…

Q: I have this one parent that’s driving me crazy! They’re completely unsupportive of the work I’m trying to do with their teen. Is there anything I can do to change that?

A note before answering: when doing youth work, you’re almost always working with their parents or family on some level as well. I’ve actually had this question, and others like it, come up a lot. Therefore, we’re going to do a series answering your parent-related questions over the coming Tuesdays.

We’re going to explore what to do with:

If you have any questions about dealing with parents, put them in the comments below, ask them on Facebook or Twitter or contact us directly and we’ll add a few more posts to the series.

A: My first thought is: ‘Just one unsupportive parent!?’ (kidding moms and dads, just kidding) When doing youth work, you’ll have families from all kinds of different backgrounds and experiences joining your program. As a result, you’re bound to work well with some and find others challenging to deal with.

This feeling goes both ways – parents and carers may have had experiences (both good and bad) with previous youth workers that have caused them to appear (or sometimes actually be) unsupportive of your youth work.

Here are a few steps you can take to win them over to your side, or at the very least, make every to effort build bridges and gain understanding.

1. Keep your ducks in a row

Make sure that the things you are in control of are sorted out. Maybe a parent feels unsupportive of your youth work because they think you’re young, inexperienced and/or unprofessional. This may be true, or it could be a false assumption they’ve made based on those previous experiences we mentioned earlier.

Get permission slips out early, drop off youth on time after events and be prepared to answer their questions, even the unreasonable ones. While there are some people who will find fault no matter what you do, take away as many of their issues or objections as you can, then…

2. Attempt to build relationships anyway

Don’t just shun the unsupportive parents. Take the time to get to know them, ask to meet with them and find out how they’re feeling about their child’s participation in your youth work program.

Don’t be afraid of a little criticism, even if it’s not in the ‘positive, critique, positive’ sandwich format that we all love. Take the time to understand their concerns or objections to your work, and make the effort to address reasonable issues. If you’re still finding the parents unsupportive, then…

3. Discuss the issue with your supervisor

Whether you have a workplace supervisor/mentor or you just have sessions with your boss, take some time to talk over the challenges you’re facing with the unsupportive parents. If they’re someone who has also been in your role or in the caring professions (a pastor, social worker or just as a people manager), they’ll have experience they can share about handling challenging and unsupportive people. Even if none of these first three steps work…

4. Don’t give up on the youth

Just because they have unsupportive parents, it doesn’t mean the young person doesn’t need your youth work program or relationship. Their parents may also be unsupportive of them (more on this next week) and they need their relationship with you.

No matter how challenging it can be to work with unsupportive parents, it’s not the parent you’re here to please – it’s the youth that you’re trying to support and empower. So do what you can to build a relationship with their parents and then focus on what’s most important in your work – the youth.

I’m not saying that you should write off anyone who is hard to deal with or comply with every request they make if it’s not in the best interests of your youth work. You just need to find the balance in your professionalism. We’re all going to have those parents, colleagues and volunteers who are unsupportive at one time or another. Do the best you can to follow the steps above and keep the youth being your primary focus.

Next week, we’ll look at how to deal with unsupportive parents of your youth, rather than of your youth work.

Question: What advice do you have for dealing with unsupportive parents of your youth work? Let us know in the comments below.

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