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This invaluable resource contains over 100 activities designed to increase young people’s positive views of themselves. The activities are fun, easy to use and will make a positive difference in your work as well as in their lives. The book also contains information on how to facilitate the activities, and how to add skills to your own practice. It encourages you to focus on the positive, seek to appreciate the good and the worth in people, and de-clutter your work with young people - all to make a positive difference.
Young adults, young people and children from age 8 upwards will all enjoy the challenges of taking part in the activities, and increase their learning through positive images of success. In a society where young people are so often surrounded by negative images of themselves, which in turn undermine society’s confidence in their capabilities, it is all the more important for young people to be able to improve their views about themselves and to develop ways to respond positively to other people’s concerns about them. The activities in this book can help you to help young people achieve this. They are
wholly inclusive, and can be used regardless of age, ability, gender, strength or agility. This book is fun and it works!
No hard-to-find or expensive equipment is needed. Even when time and space are limited, whether in formal or informal settings, the
111 short, simple and easy to use activities will help you help young people work together in groups to undertake simple yet challenging activities that promote creativity, problem solving, co-operation, and understanding of the needs of both the group and the individuals. They require inclusive and team-like behaviours, and encourage fallibility and risk taking.
Many are based on traditional games and activities; all are adapted here for use in schools, youth work, voluntary organisations, and outdoor activity centres, where they have been
tried and tested over 40 years by author Paul Lee. Co-author and teacher Louise Bishop has helped write them up, so that other people can be sure to learn from Paul’s extensive experience as physical activity and adventure instructor, youth worker, special needs facilitator/educator and corporate trainer & with a wide variety of young people from diverse backgrounds, in a variety of contexts, with various individual and collective needs.
How a worker’s own beliefs can impact upon a young person’s success is emphasised in the detailed information, suggestions and ideas on organisation and facilitation of fun-packed sessions and programmes. The recommended process of developing your work with children and young people involves:
de-cluttering and simplifying informal activities
working with the group’s dynamic
’letting go’ in appropriate circumstances using suggested strategies for encouraging the transfer of responsibility from the adult to the individuals and the group as a whole.
You can also use this material with
adults on personal development and team-leadership courses.
Large format paperback 176 pages Published October 2008 ISBN: 9781905541218 £19.95
READERSHIP
Volunteers and professionals who wish to make a positive difference in their work with young adults, young people and children from age 8 upwards: teachers, youth workers, play group workers, police, probation officers, youth justice workers, trainers, outdoor and adventure leaders.
Also trainers, managers, adventure leaders undertaking personal development, team-building and team-leadership courses with adults.
CONTENTS: Introduction. Activities. Seated circle activities. (14 activites, levels 1-2). Standing circle activities (18 activities, levels 1-5). Line activities (14 activities, levels 2-5). Rectangle activities (28 activities, levels 3-5). Chip or block activities (4 activities, levels 2-5). Small group activities (10 activities, levels 3-5). Bits and pieces activities (23 activities, levels 2-4). (NOTE: The activities are categorised from Level 1 to Level 5 according to their complexity, with - roughly speaking - Level 1 being warm-ups and Level 5 providing a significant challenge to a group or number of small groups. Any of the activities can be used individually, or structured into sessions.) Facilitation. Introduction. Facilitation Tools. Conclusion.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Paul Lee is a freelance outdoor activities technician and training consultant, and an independent activities designer. He has been the Senior Manager of a Special Residential School for children statemented as having emotional and behavioural difficulties, and has worked as Senior Tutor for TIC-TOC Training, a youth worker, and a physical/adventure training instructor. Louise Bishop has 13 years’ experience as a teacher, working in nurseries through to secondary school, and has worked with children and young people with special needs and behavioural problems. Both are based in Shetland.