Archive for October, 2011
Building Strong Relationships With Youth
The Most Important Thing
No matter what your youth program is doing, how you’re engaging youth or what your youth development model and plan are, there is one thing that will make or break your program. If you want to make a difference in the lives of youth, it all starts from the foundation of a strong friendship. This is key. Youth don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Youth don’t care about your qualifications, how snazzy your dressing is, how knowledgeable you are about the issues they’re facing, how funny your jokes are, how interesting your third nipple is (well maybe). The fact is, even if you think you’re the most uncool, lame, boring youth worker, if you have a heart for youth and genuinely care for them, that’s going to outshine everything else you’re doing in your program. Remember that youth are people and if you really want to impact them, you have to focus on people above programs. Don’t ever forget: youth don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Starting your youth program from that foundation will revolutionize the way you think, the way you talk to and the way you work with youth.
More is Caught than Taught Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: kids and teens development, youth developmentRelated posts
Love For Youth – Spending Time With Youth
Love = Time
Sometimes we as youth leaders in our quest to “Save the World’s Youth” may think that having fun and hanging out with youth may seem like a waste of time in the light of all the issues our youth have are dealing with: teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, smoking, poor academic performance, and the like. We forget that unless we spend time with youth, we will never get to really deal with the core issues at stake. We may not understand what our youth might be going through at home or in school. Life is tough nowadays. He or she might be experiencing a tense home situation or a stressful time with studies. It is important to remember that fun, despite the connotation, is not trivial–for youth, having fun and sharing it with an adult carry great weight and a meaning. It is more than a recreational outlet, a chance to “blow off steam,” or an opportunity to play. Spending time having fun and hanging out is the best and simplest way to express your love and concern for them. And if you don’t spend time with your youth, it won’t matter how many times you tell them you care, they’re not going to believe it–youth spell L-O-V-E as T-I-M-E.
Trust Takes Time
They need to feel that they trust you and feel safe around you and building that kind of trust takes time. One youth leader says it best, “To get kids to where they know that you really care and can be trusted, you just have to spend time with them and do things that they like to do.” For the analytical among us, studies have shown that youth experience a growing sense of self-worth when an adult not only pays persistent, positive attention to them, but also willingly joins them in activities the youth describe as fun (parents among us, time to take notes). As your youth come to see you as a friend, he or she is likely to be far more receptive to spending Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: kids and teens development, youth developmentRelated posts
Converting Simple Hobbies Into So Much More
What are sparks?
Sparks are those activities in your life that get your blood pumping, those things you just love to do, a unique gift that you can do more easily than others. For many teenagers things like sport, drama, music, art come to mind. Sparks are more than simply hobbies though – they are those things that light a fire inside you simply by the act of thinking about it. You feel like you could work on your spark for days on end, as if time stood still while you did it. Studies have shown that 66% of teenagers have at least one spark and 98% of teenagers spend at least 1 hour per week on these interests.
Why are they important?
Sparks are important for everyone because they provide a fuel for life, a passion, a purpose for living. There is however a difference between simply having a hobby or an interest and a spark. For one third of teenagers these interests and hobbies do not ignite a passion and as such are not really a spark. The distinction between hobbies and sparks is important because of the outcomes teenagers with sparks produce, compared to those simply with hobbies. For example: teens with a well defined spark were more likely to take initiative to develop their own spark, had a higher sense of purpose and were more comfortable asking adults for guidance with respect to their spark. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: kids and teens development, youth development