Recruiting and Engaging Youth Training

Participant Workbook

This material was produced by institutions that represent SNAP-Ed in California, known as CalFresh, with funding from USDA SNAP-Ed. These institutions, the California Department of Social Services, the California Department of Public Health, UC CalFresh, California Department of Aging, and Catholic Charities of California, are equal opportunity providers and employers. CalFresh provides assistance to low-income households and can help buy nutritious food for better health. For CalFresh information, call 1-877-847-3663.

Agenda

Welcome and Introductions

Engaging Youth

Break

YPAR Overview

Lunch

Recruiting and Working with Youth

PA Break/Break

Addressing Challenging Situations

Choosing an Issue and Partnerships

Youth Projects

Closing

Learning Objectives:

Identify methods to increase youth engagement

Demonstrate how to conduct team-building activities with youth

Identify the steps in the Youth-led Participatory Action Research

(YPAR) Process

Describe a strategy on how to engage and collaborate with

community partners on youth engagement activities

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Recruiting and Engaging Youth

ACTIVITY: Setting Group Agreements

OBJECTIVES:

To create a safer space for group. To set up a system of accountability in the group. To reduce oppressive power dynamics

TIME NEEDED:

20 minutes

MATERIALS:

Flipchart paper Markers

INTRODUCTION:

We develop group agreements to create a safe space in our group and to hold each other accountable to what we believe and want. Group agreements are like ground rules for our meetings and trainings that we can all agree to follow.

INSTRUCTIONS:

We are going to brainstorm group agreements. What agreements do you want for this team? [Chart participants’ answers.] What does this agreement mean for you? Why is it important to have this agreement in this space? What else?

DEBRIEF:

Does everyone like these group agreements? [Have participants show their agreement-raise hands, fists, thumbs up, sign the flipchart paper, etc.] Does anyone disagree with any of these, or want to change anything, or ask any clarifying questions? [Post group agreements during your first month of meetings. Revisit if participants are having a hard time following group agreements.

SAMPLE AGREEMENTS:

Take ideas from the group, but feel free to add if something is missing. One Mic (one person speaks at a time)

Step Up, Step Back (if you’re a person who talks a lot/takes up a lot of space,

step back; if you don’t speak very much, step up) Confidentiality (what’s said in the room stays in the room) Don’t Yuk Someone’s Yum (let people express their ideas)

Challenge the idea, not the person (express disagreement with people’s ideas, while still respecting the person)

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Group Agreements Activity

Notes:

3

Defining YPAR/YPAR Shuffle

Notes:

4

5

Hart’s Ladder Scenarios

Notes:

6

Where can you recruit?

Communities:• 4-H programs

• Boy and girl clubs (e.g., Boy/Girl Scouts)

• YMCAs

• Faith based organizations

• Social service providers

• Park and recreation centers

• Volunteer centers

Schools:• After school programs

• Student government

• Cultural clubs

• Classes (e.g., home economics, civics/leadership classes, health/science)

• Athletic teams

• Parent Teacher Association/Organization

• School counselors

Others:

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Tips for Working with Youth

Time:

Avoid classroom hours Avoid early mornings Meet during lunch, early in the evening or weekends Consider school exam schedules Serve food if allowable

Where and how will you meet:

Have meetings at gathering places to limit travel of youth Hold meetings along public transportation is possible

Ensure parental permission:

Obtain parental permission and contact information Utilize a release form granting permission to work with media and be

photographed if appropriate

Optimize communication:

Use email, list serves, Facebook or text messages to remind of upcoming meetings, due dates and tasks

Provide your contact information Check in frequently Arrange for access to telephones, email, computers Just listen to the youth Gauge youth understanding of the issue and interest

Organizing meetings:

Provide an orientation of your project Establish ground rules as a group Allow time for youth socialize with each other Consider where the meeting is being held (environment) Utilize icebreakers/team building exercises Utilize check-in/check-out Have youth co-facilitate whenever possible

Additional items to consider when working with youth:

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Incentives (if allowable) Acknowledge good meeting attendance and participation Utilize job descriptions that it is clear what their role will be

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HOW ADULTS CAN BE YOUTH ALLIES

Trust youth to make decisions. Listen to, support, and help sustain the ideas and decisions made by young people. Let their ideas “stick” without editing or reframing them.

Tell youth the truth. Be transparent about the institutional and individual privilege adults have and how that show up in work with youth.

Increase youth participation and leadership. Work to involve youth at all levels of your organization, including staff, board, and other decision-making bodies. Include youth in your organizational evaluation and strategic planning.

Value youth’s roles in creating lasting change. Understand how youth are effective leaders and participants in making lasting community, policy and institutional change.

Experience is everything. Remember and relate your experience as a young person, and respect the lived experiences of the youth in your organization or work. Know when it’s necessary and appropriate to share relevant experiences and when to trust their expertise.

Challenge back and forth. Respect youth enough to challenge their ideas and to be challenged back.

You are being watched. Be consistent in principal and action. Model the kind of leadership you promote for youth.

Let go. Let yourself feel joy and success when youth take the tools given to them and use them in their own way and for their own means.

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ACTIVITY: Check-In/ Check-Out

OBJECTIVES:

To learn where team members are and when group begins and ends.To create group safety and ground rules in the meeting space.To build unity and compassion among team members.

TIME NEEDED:

5-10 minutes

MATERIALS:

None

INTRODUCTION:

We check-in with each other at the beginning of a meeting order to hear where everyone is coming from, feeling, thinking etc. It gives us an opportunity to voice what we’re bringing into the meeting. Checking-in also allows everyone in the group to become more present in the meeting. We check-out with each other at the end of a meeting as a form of closing the group and hearing everyone’s feelings and thoughts.

INSTRUCTIONS:

A check-in question can be as simple as “How are you today?” to something creative like “tell me how you are using a weather forecast” ( i.e. if you’re happy, you may be feeling sunny all day and into the next.). Check-ins can also include questions like, “what’s one thing you bring to the group today, “why are you in this group,” etc. Check-outs can include “how are you feeling at the end of this meeting?”, say one word that describes how you’re feeling”, “what’s one thing you’re doing after this meeting?”, etc.

Everyone should check-in and check-out with the option to pass.

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FUN &WACKY CHECK-IN QUESTIONS:

To make check-in exciting make a check-in bag: Write the check-in questions on little pieces of paper and have a young person draw out a questions at the beginning of each meeting. Or have the young people write their own check in questions for the bag! What are your highlights and lowlights of today (or the weekend, or the last week)?

What weather forecast best describes how you are feeling today? (sunny, cloudy, stormyext.)

What’s one weird / funny/ embarrassing thing that happened today or this week?

If you could be any city in the world, what city is most like you and why?

If you could pick a sound track for your life, what theme song would you pick, and why?

If you were a pair of shoes, what shoes would you be and why?

What city landmark are you and why?

If you could have a super power what superpower would you pick and why?

If you were a fruit / vegetable / dessert / cold drink etc. What would you be and why? (thiscan be lots of separate questions)

What’s one thing we wouldn’t know about you by looking at you?

What color would best describe your personality and why?

What thing in nature best describes you and why? (fire, water, waves, mountains,volcanoes, sand Etc.)

If you could be any cartoon character / person on television / media personality, whowould you be and why?

Who is your favorite character from a book and why? (or if you could be any characterfrom a book who would you be and why?)

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it and why?

If you could be the best in the world at one thing, what would you want to be really goodat?

Who’s one person you admire and why?

What are three things you want to do in your lifetime?

What Sport is most like your personality and why?

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AffirmationA statement of appreciation for who a person is

or for something a person does

Types of Affirmation

Acknowledging Successes or Identifying Skills/Abilities

Appreciating Struggles or Difficulties

Seeing the Person’s Point of View

Appreciating their Willingness to Participate

NOTE: Affirming does not always mean agreeing!

Affirming group members encourages others to speak up

Affirming can be part of a response to challenging statements

Alexby: Alex

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Reflective ListeningTwo steps:

Guess the Meaning Make a Statement

Reflective listening is a statement, not a question. Voice inflection turns down.

Possible ways to start a reflection in a group:

PracticeGroup Member Reflection

I just don’t want to do this today! My boyfriend just broke up with me.I disagree with the rest of you. I don’t care about helping kids get more physical activity.

I’m just here to get my service hours. I don’t care what we do.

It sounds like you… It seems like… So you… You…

Reflections let group members know that you are listening and understand them.

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Bounce BackGetting Others Involved

When you bounce back, you invite others to share their experiences or ideas about what someone else in the group has just said.

ExamplesWhat do the rest of you think?

I’d be curious to hear from a few others.

Who has had a similar experience?

Who has had a different experience?

Who else would like to comment on that?

Who else would like to share?

Note: You don’t have to bounce back if you think you might lose control of the group.

PracticeGroup Member Affirm and Bounce Back

In my opinion we should all do a project to promote healthier eating!My experience with trying to get people to eat vegetables has been a very negative one!

Move OnDon’t Get Stuck

Gracefully move on to the next topic or activity. Avoid getting into a discussion with just one group member – the others will quickly tune out.

ExamplesLet’s move on to… We need to get back

to our topic…Now let’s talk about….

What I might say:

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Affirm/Reflect Bounce Back (or Reply) Thank and Move On

A learner-centered approach to responding to challenging situations

1. Affirm or Reflect Let the group member know they are

heard understood, and appreciated

2. Bounce Back

or Reply Get other group members involved OR

Get back on track

3. Thank and Move On Let them know you appreciate that they spoke up!

AND

Move on – don’t get stuck!

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Community Mapping

Activity

(Recruitment)

Notes:

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Working with Community Partners

Overarching Goal of Project:

Goal Partner Ways to EngageGet flower beds put into school garden

Woodshop Class Propose a project to woodshop class to help them learn how to build flower beds while helping with a school project.

Notes: