Youth Trips - Youth Workin' It

The Youth Retreat Volunteer You Need To Have

January 22, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Q: I’m planning a youth retreat and am trying to make a list of roles I need volunteers to fill. Are there any roles people don’t normally consider that I might have missed?

A: There are many different roles that need filling by volunteers on a youth retreat. We’ve outlined many of these in our youth retreat book, but here is one that you may not have considered:

Designated Emergency Contact

We’re not talking about having emergency contact details for parents and guardians, although that is something that should always be included on the registration form.

Instead, we mean having someone who’s a designated emergency contact for the youth retreat for both parents and yourself. This should be an adult who’s available 24 hours a day for the duration of the retreat. They don’t have to be one of your regular volunteers, just someone who’s willing to perform this role.

Phone Numbers

This responsible adult should be given phone numbers for:

All the parents
Yourself
All the other volunteers at the youth retreat
The retreat center
Any other location you might visit (e.g. theme park, climbing center, high ropes course, etc)

Why You Would Call Them

If you have any emergencies at the youth retreat and need to contact parents, you can call this person who can then communicate with the relevant parents. This means that you only have to explain the situation once and can focus on the emergency on hand, rather than potentially having to call several parents.

Why Parents Would Call Them

If parents have an emergency (e.g. a family member has passed away unexpectedly), they can call the emergency contact who can then call you.

Having someone perform this role ensures that you won’t be interrupted at inopportune times by parents who don’t have an emergency, but who just want to make sure that their little Johnny isn’t feeling homesick. This middleman can therefore make a judgment call to decide if they should contact you immediately.

For situations that aren’t an emergency, you could pre-arrange a time for this volunteer to call you each day – one that fits in with your youth retreat schedule, such as during free time or at lunch.

Recruiting a designated emergency contact as a stay-at-home volunteer therefore helps ensure you have a safe youth trip by having an effective communication structure, while also ensuring you don’t get interrupted by non-emergency phone calls.

Question: What one youth retreat volunteer do you consider to be essential? Let us know in the comments below.

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What Are Some Good Youth Group Trip Ideas?

November 27, 2012 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Q: What are some good youth group trip ideas?

A: The answer to this question depends on how much money and time you have. The key is to not shy away from something – give everything a try. What worked/didn’t work with one group may work with another.

Some of the biggest hits with my youth were the zoo and aquarium, which were often ideas that were originally made fun of by my colleagues. They thought that the youth would be bored.

However, many youth don’t have the opportunity to do these things any more. With vanishing school budgets, field trips are almost non-existent, particularly for middle and high school aged youth and parents don’t always have the time, money or inclination to explore these places with their children.

Talk to your youth – find out what sort of things would interest them, but equally don’t be afraid to go out on a limb and try something that you think they might enjoy as well, even if it flies in the face of conventional youth work wisdom.

Below are some ideas to get your juices flowing – there are options for every budget:

	Free (or almost free)	Less Expensive	More Expensive
1 Hour	A local park for wide games	Photo scavenger hunt at the mall	Meal at a restaurant
2-3 Hours	Hike in the woods or on the beach	Bowling/roller-skating	Organize a video game tournament at the local arcade
4-6 Hours	Museum or historic house	Pottery making/decorating	Zoo or aquarium
1 Full Day (12+ Hours)	Sporting tournament with another youth group/center in a nearby town	Day trip to nearby historical sites (e.g. Washington DC or your state/country capital)	Water park/amusement park
2+ Days	Stay at a local church/community center/ host homes and find free things to do in a nearby town	Stay in a hotel and find free things to do in a nearby town or stay in local churches/ community centers or host homes and pay to do a few things in a nearby town	Full service camp or youth retreat

If you’re planning a trip, check out our list of 5 top tips for safe youth trips.

Question: What good youth group trip ideas would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

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How To Create A Youth Group Permission Slip

July 4, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Youth group permission slips — Get the green light from parents for special trips and activities

If you’re organizing a youth retreat, lock-in or some other kind of trip, you’ll need to create a youth group permission slip. This should then be completed by the parent or guardian of each young person who’s taking part in the activity or trip.

This completed youth group permission slip gives you, as the name suggests, permission to take their child on the trip and provides you with any important information that you’ll need.

The extensiveness of information gathered on the permission slip will vary depending on what you have planned – if you’re taking young people away for the weekend on a youth retreat, you’ll need more information than if you were to take them ice-skating.

There are three steps to creating a youth group permission slip:

1) Youth information

Here are 12 pieces of information you may need about each young person

Young person’s name
Date of birth
Address
Parent’s name
Phone number for parent(s)
Other emergency contact name and phone number
Medical information (e.g. any medications they’re on, allergies, whether they have epilepsy, etc)
Dietary requirements (vegetarian, gluten free, lactose intolerant, etc)
Health insurance company they’re covered with
Policy number
Family physician
Family physician phone number

This list covers important information you need to know, but there’s another element you need on the youth group permission slip……..

2) Parental Permission

At the bottom of the slip, include some further wording such as the following:

I give permission for my child to take part in (whatever the activity or trip is) and agree that the leadership team (or youth work organization) will not be held responsible for any injuries or illnesses that my child sustains during the (activity or trip).

I hereby authorize an adult leader of the (activity or trip), as an agent of myself, to provide routine health care (including over-the-counter medication such as ibuprofen), administer prescribed medications and seek emergency medical treatment, if deemed necessary by said adult leader.

In the event that I cannot be contacted in an emergency, I authorize the physician or hospital selected by the leader to provide treatment, including hospitalization, for my child.

3) Signature

Finally, the permission slip needs to have a section at the bottom that the parent signs, states their name and provides the date they did this.

If you’re planning a youth retreat, we have a youth retreat permission slip template to download (along with more than a dozen other documents) with a copy of our book. Find out more about How To Plan A Youth Retreat or buy from Amazon using the link to the right.

Question: What other information do you include on a youth group permission slip? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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5 Top Tips For Safe Youth Trips

June 27, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

When you’re planning a youth trip, the safety of your young people is of utmost importance. You can’t guarantee that there will never be any problems when organizing off-site activities, but there are a number of things you can do to help mitigate risk.

Here are Youth Workin’ It’s 5 Top Tips For Safe Youth Trips:

1) Perform A Risk Assessment

If you’re planning a trip to the beach, a hike in the mountains or any number of other activities, there are different hazards that you’ll need to be aware of. Performing a risk assessment will help you identify those hazards and put in place any necessary precautions.

Check out our guide on how to do a risk assessment – this includes a free and downloadable risk assessment template for you to use.

2) Take photos

No matter what kind of youth trip you’re organizing, there’s always the possibility that a young person could go wandering off by themselves and be separated from your group.

Before you go on the trip, we recommend taking photos of all the young people with your cellphone. That way if someone does get lost, you can easily show the police, theme park staff or whoever a picture of the missing person.

3) Get Permission Slips

If you’re organizing any kind of activity that’s different to what you normally do at your youth group or youth project – especially if it’s off-site – ensure that you have parents sign a permission slip for the activity. That way you’re covered if someone gets hurt or anything else happens.

These slips should also have space for any necessary medical information about the young people. If you want to organize a safe youth trip, you’ll need to be aware of some of the following things:

Do they have any allergies?
Do they have epilepsy?
Are they on any medication?
Are they diabetic?

4) Collate Contact Information

Having the right contact details for everybody is vital, especially in the case of a medical emergency on the youth trip. Here are a few safeguards to put in place:

If youth have cellphones with them, save their numbers in your phone or make a note of them
Provide parents with contact details for someone in charge. This doesn’t necessarily have to be you – it could be a central contact point for somebody at your organization who can relay any messages on to you or vice versa
If you do have a central contact point other than yourself, make sure that person has all necessary phone numbers as well

5) Provide Leadership Packs

If you’re planning a youth trip, it’s unlikely that you’ll be the only leader going. You should therefore put together packs for all your leaders/volunteers with the following information:

Any information from the risk assessment that they should be explicitly aware of, along with any precautions they should take
If you’ll be splitting into separate groups, provide photos of the young people they’re in charge of (or have them take photos on their own cell phone)
Any important health information relating to the young people. If splitting into groups, you only need to provide information for the young people they’ll have with them
Details of who they should contact in an emergency, along with their phone numbers
Details of a meeting point in case you get separated

Following all 5 of these safety tips will minimize risk and keep you and your young people safe, helping all of you to enjoy whatever you have planned for your youth trip.

Question: What other tips would you give to have a safe youth trip? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Three Keys To A Successful Youth Trip

November 8, 2011 By Shae Pepper Leave a Comment

Q: What can I do to make sure my youth trip is successful?

A: Youth trips can be exciting but require planning to ensure they are a complete success.

Here are three things you can do to ensure your youth trip is successful.

Youth Ownership – Include young people in the planning of the youth trip. Have them give you ideas of things they’d like to do or places they’d like to go. Depending on their age, how long they’ve been with you, etc. you could delegate the entire planning of the youth trip to them, offering support and maybe a checklist to support their efforts so they experience success.
Proper Paperwork – Ensure you have organization-approved permission slips, photo-release forms, risk assessments and clear instructions / expectations for youth behavior on the trip.
Volunteers – No matter how well behaved your youth group is, a few extra people responsible for group morale, safety and relationship building will help make you less stressed, more focused on the big picture of the day and more able to enjoy the entire trip from start to finish. Many agencies have a 10:1 youth:adult ratio. I recommend increasing this to 3:1 or at least 5:1 if possible.

Question: How do you know if your youth trip has been successful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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