Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

How To Create A Youth Work Session Plan – Part 1

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I did try to warn you that I was part administrative nerd.  How to create a youth work session plan

My name is Shae Pepper and I’m an Excelaholic. ‘Hi Shae.’ I LOVE Excel. And Word, Publisher, Outlook and PowerPoint but please don’t get me started on that red-headed step-child that is Access (it’s ok, I’m red-headed and a step-child – I can say things like that).

I use Excel to create my youth work session plans, although I have to admit that I was trained up in the way I should go by the fantastic staff at the Plantation Cafe.

I’m able to plan my entire year’s worth of sessions in ONE Excel spreadsheet. You can do your session plans in Word tables, but using Excel means you can keep them all together.

I even have an overview of the year on the first tab. I include my session evaluations in them so I can look back when it’s time to plan the next year’s sessions. This helps me to see what worked and what didn’t, as well as why or why not for any session.  Plus – everything is color-coded; it’s an admin nerd’s dream.

Having a clear youth work session plan will help your session run smoothly. You can easily see all your necessary resources, who is doing what and the timings. If things are ahead or behind, you can easily change your plan around because you’ve given careful thought to your plan from the outset.

Here are the first 7 items I include in my youth work session plans:

  1. Date and Location – This is helpful when you run several sessions a week at various locations
  2. Team Leader Name and Assistant Team Leader Name – Different people led on different days, by specifying who was leading which days and who was assisting it gave clear direction for the team for each day
  3. Time – A list of times that each activity starts so you can be time-sensitive
  4. Activities – A list of each activity that you will be doing for the day, including break times, etc.
  5. Resources – A list of what resources were needed for each activity and game – that way, you can easily identify what needs to be gathered for the session’s activities
  6. Leader – Who was leading each activity throughout the day (either the Team Leader’s or Assistant Team Leader’s initials)
  7. Support Staff – What was the role of the person not leading? Facilitating a discussion, preparing for the next activity, monitoring behavior, etc.

See part 2 of Creating A Youth Work Session Plan for the next 7 items.

Would you like assistance in creating youth work session plans or other administrative jobs? Contact us about our Consultation Services today!

Question: How do you plan your youth work sessions? We’d really like to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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Not Just SMART But SMARTER Targets And Goals

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SMARTER targets in youth workIn a previous post we talked about how to create SMART targets for your youth work.  Well, why just work SMART if you can work SMARTER?

We start with the same SMART acronym:

S – Specific

M – Measureable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Timebound

but now we add the ER to make SMARTER targets:

E is for Evaluate

Come back and evaluate the success or areas for improvement within your goal and target setting. For example:

  • I want to increase attendance at my youth group by 20% by May 15 next year. You can evaluate both during and at the end of your SMARTER target’s timeline. Therefore, in December of the previous year you might evaluate how close you are to achieving that goal. Maybe you increased by 18% – decide what worked well and what didn’t and how you might achieve the other 2% growth by May. Or maybe you increased your attendance by 50% and it’s time to set a new goal for May. Monitoring and Evaluation is a fluid process and should be happening regularly in your youth work.

R is for Reassess or Re-evaluate (it can also mean Record)

Once you reach the time allotted for achieving your goal (remember T in SMART is for time-bound), take the time to reassess the goals for your program, your youth work and any personal goals you may have had as a practitioner.

Even if you didn’t reach your goals, take the time to re-evaluate what went well and what could be improved (use the SMART acronym to help you identify areas for improvement: was it Specific, Measurable, etc.) and how you might achieve the goal the next time around.

You might also find that this is the time (as well as throughout the process) to record your youth work in a report form, case studies or other measuring tool to identify which goals you reached, which you did not and why. This helps create evidence-based programs which will give support to funding applications and requests to continue with programs within your organization.

  • Reassess all of your goals at the end of the time you have given yourself to achieve each one. Record the outcomes in a report or spreadsheet. Did you grow your youth group by 20% by May of the following year? What are some case studies of the change that was affected by your program in the lives of your young people during that time?

Creating SMARTER targets will help you work within a framework for creating, managing, evaluating and recording goals for your youth group or youth program.

If you would like further support in creating SMARTER targets or helping you with the monitoring and evaluation of your project, please check out our consultancy services or contact us to schedule a free 30-minute virtual consultation.

Question: How have you used SMARTER targets for your youth work? Has it helped? Let us know in the comments below.

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Create SMART Targets For Your Youth Work

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SMART targets in youth workIt’s that time again – time to create SMART targets for your youth work. Whether it’s back to school (for those in the geographical North) or planning the upcoming Summer hols (for our geographically Southern friends), it’s time for a plan. Maybe for a few months, a school term or the entire year, but it’s definitely time to think and plan ahead.

Even if you’re not much of a planner, someone (your boss, parents, the youth themselves), somewhere (in the board of directors meeting, during your weekly supervision sessions, in your annual performance review), probably wants to see your plans and maybe even wants to know how it fits into your wider vision… and theirs.

It’s very possible that you have heard of the SMART target acronym before when setting goals or targets. We’re sharing it with you again (or maybe for the first time) because it works. It helps give you a framework for setting goals that are measurable so that later on you can provide evidence of the youth work that you did and things you accomplished.

Most youth workers in my experience – even in the (often) warm and fuzzy setting of faith-based organizations – will need to show evidence for their work at some point. Maybe you have a board of directors you answer to, donors who gave money to your project or maybe you need funding and want to attract donors (read: SMART target planning may help you get more money – who doesn’t need more money for their projects?!).

Having clear plans and goals as well as evidence to show what you have accomplished so far is always helpful in finding and maintaining funds, as well as job security when meeting with the people who sign off on your paycheck or programs. Even if planning strategically is not a requirement for you and your organization, creating SMART targets will help you become a better youth worker who is able to affect maximum change in your young people if planned out properly.

So let’s get down to how to create SMART targets. There are several options for what each letter stands for – find the ones that work best for you here:

S is for Specific – make each target or goal in your plan specific.  Be very clear and intentional about what you are trying to achieve.

  • Growing the youth group vs. To increase the youth group by 20%

M is for Measurable – make each target or goal something that can be tangibly measured, either in numbers or percentages

  • Have a big youth retreat vs. Have a youth retreat with 80 youth in attendance

A is for Achievable – make each target or goal something that can be achieved through measurement.

  • Raise money for a new bus vs. Raise $5,000 for a new bus

R is for Realistic – make each target or goal something that is based on realistic expectations.

  • Have a youth retreat with 80 youth in attendance – the last five retreats had 15 youth vs. Have a youth retreat with 40 youth in attendance – a more achievable amount based on previous years
T is for Time-bound – give each target or goal a time frame to be completed/reviewed by.
  • Increase program attendance by 20% vs. Increase program attendance by 20% by May 15 next year
If you don’t know what you are doing or where you are going with your youth group, how can you really know when you’ve achieved what you set out to do?

Question: What SMART targets do you plan to set for your programs? What other methods do you use for planning your youth work? We’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

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