The best thing since sliced bread.

PEOPLE

This game works great with about 10 people or more. If you have less people, you probably need fewer things. The skills you are looking to encourage on this one are the ability to argue the case for your ‘thing’ being the best, and to convince other people to join you.

PREP IT

You will need 10 things, one of which is sliced bread. Write these things on cards. You can pick a mix of silly things foods, activities, inventions or you can make this specific to what you do. In our group, we added in ‘the pill’ and ‘condoms’ because we are a sex ed project and we like to keep things relevant.

PRESENT IT

Gather your group in a circle. The point of the game is to find out which is the best thing of all. Put the cards on the floor in the circle and as you put them out call out what the ‘thing’ is. The group must go and huddle around the thing that they think is the best.

PLAY IT

Encourage the group to spread out as much as they can, the game will be over pretty quick if they all go to the same thing. Countdown from 10, and then look for the ‘things’ with no people standing by them. Ask ‘is anyone going to defend this thing??’ and you might get someone try to. If they do, tell them to try and sell it to the rest of the group. If no one joins them, eliminate the ‘things’ with no supporters. The person with nothing left to support must join another group, so the other groups will have to convince them to join their team.

Keep going! Pick on the ‘things’ with the least supporters and ask them to speak. Some young people will give a stirring speech about how the pill has empowered so many women to control the size of their families and therefore engage more with other parts of life, thus leading to the lifestyles women have today, and convince half the group to side with them, so this could go on for a while!

THE END

When there are only two groups left, the group with the most supporters is the winner! Don’t forget to praise everybody and thank them for taking part!

ADAPT IT

This is a nice versatile game; you can tweak the list of things so it fits with the topic you want to discuss in the session. You can make it a bigger or smaller game, and it gives people the chance to speak out in their groups. Convincing people to support a worthy cause can be fun, who doesn’t like to share what they care about? It also gives you, as facilitator, an easy time, because you can ask people lots of questions and encourage them. You can also turn this into a more considered game, like giving 10 forms of contraception and getting groups to convince each other using facts (!) Adding a few ‘silly’ items can keep the game light-hearted. You can make A LOT of noise with this game too. Have fun with it!

Mince is a youth worker in England who hates doing the same icebreaker twice.

The youth workers you meet again and again…

The youth workers you meet again and again…

You know youth work, like many jobs I guess, gets the same applicants for jobs over and over again. As a result, your youth club has at least one of these people in it. You might even be one of them. I swear, they aren’t all bad, like everything, it’s all in the mix!

1. The mother in law

This youth worker knows what you are thinking. She knows what you should be doing. Is she gunna tell you? Nah. She’s going to stand there and look right through you. This is a worker who has been working da yoof since the dawn of time. There’s not an excuse she hasn’t seen and she knows a shoddy youth worker when she sees one. Her responses are so fast, you’d think she has a time machine. She responds to EVERYthing with a question. She never lets a swear word slip, or anything that could be twisted by a young person trying to wind her up. Nothing can wind her up. She has kids, they are probably older than you. She’s probably had more kids than anyone else would know what to do with, and you bet they are the most balanced, kind and caring individuals you’d ever meet, with nothing but praise for mama.

2. The wise man of the forest, also known as ‘The yoof whisperer’

This youth worker got his job before health and safety was a thing. You can tell this, because his risk assessments say ‘its ok’ on them, and nothing else. If they say anything at all, that is. To this dude, session planning is something other people do. If you go camping with this guy, he will forget the tents and insist you can make one out of leaves - what are you moaning about?? This worker owns a dog, which is never far away. They also know everyone and everyone knows them. They may or may not wear shoes. The one secret skill this worker has got is that you can bring him the angriest young person or the scariest situation, and he’ll deal with it. It will be okay. You will never know how he resolves these things, and you’ll always ask, but then he’ll look at you like you’re his grandkid or something and you just calm down and forget it. Aah!

3. The cool kid

This kid is so cool, all the yoofs wanna be them. They always look cool, say the right things, never stumble over their words or have some fashion disaster. They know exactly what’s going on in all the soaps, the local music scene, the internet… but they also make it seem super effortless too. Young people flock to this worker, who will play some pool with them, or beat them at some racing game or other, but then go off and be cool somewhere else.

4. The happy go lucky youth worker

This youth worker’s mum was a youth worker, so was their dad, and their folks before them. And their brothers and sisters, who they love, they are maybe teachers, students or youth workers. If you x-rayed and magnified this youth worker, you would see little cells saying ‘youth’ and ‘worker’ on them floating about. This person is always happy, always pleased to see you, and remembers your name even if you only met this one time like, 5 months ago at a training day. This youth worker is not up with the stuff and they dress like their parents. They are great at card games but have no idea who won X-Factor. They are interested in music, in that they might be able to play several instruments. They can climb rocks and fear nothing. They are fond of chocolate. They go out every night, but are never drunk, and have more friends than it is possible to count. They also find time to craft, knit, volunteer at animal shelters, play 3 types of sport, bake, blog and research local history. You will never know their secret.

6. The worrier

This youth worker is the first member of the team to have done their reports. They have done a risk assessment. They have risk assessed your biscuits. They fear being asked for a hot drink, in case someone spills it on someone else. This youth worker fears ‘the man’ in a big way. Their family do not do youth work. The worrier should never be left anywhere near the yoof whisperer or the boys club youth worker. The mother-in-law will have this youth worker collapse into a pile of worry on the floor with just one look. This youth worker, one day, will be totally amazing. But now, they will drive you mad.

7. The boys-club youth worker

You know when you have just sorted out some minor injury and major disagreement between a group of young people and things are just getting back into the swing of it all, and then through the swing doors comes hurricane boys-club youth worker? Yeh. This person, often a dude, messes up whatever you have got going on. If you have spent a whole night playing bad-cop about drinks in the hall etc., you can bet your inferior pay check that this dude will come flying in with a can of pop and a pack of Monster Munch going all over the floor as he bundles your newly calm group, chucks one of them over his shoulders and generally does all the stuff you’ve spent your whole night tying to moderate. Battle lost. If you are running a session, he’ll be chucking a foam football at someone’s head. This guy’s idea of working with girls is telling them to stop whining, or making some stupid comment about periods before running off. Yes, he is your youth club’s annoying little brother, and yes, he’s paid more than you.

Mince is a youth worker in England, who will leave it to you to determine which of these youth workers she has been, is now, or could be in the future.

grammar/nazis

so i get an invite to this anti bnp group. i go have a look, and i like what i find, reasoned, point by point easy made attacks on the bnp. safe.

here it is.

there's also a site linked called 'nothing british' which is a pretty good blog, and carefully lays down it's criticisms, which include this list of crimes party members, supporters and councellors have been convicted of and this list of examples of what bnp folks actually do once they get into any sort of power.

once you get into the fb group there's the usual discussions, in which people feed the trolls, who seem to be about 17, young chris and jamie are interesting.

jamie claims to have left school because his teachers were black and asian, and as a result, his written english is difficult to understand.

"...and no icaint read or write coz i never went to skl coz all the teacher were black or asian and i could not understand them so that is y i never went to skl"

*****

there's a 15 year old who argues beautifully against jamie and chris. she can't spell either, and she says as much. she bravely questions the lads, asking if they have any non white friends, asks him to define 'real' british people, and pointing out that the drum n bass these kids listen to come from black communities. she argues, patiently and persistently, without drowning the lads in long arguments that they probably wont be reading anyway.

i think she does a great job.

when other commenters taunt one of the lads saying he should be in special school she points out that being in 'special school' shouldn't be used as an insult, and it doesn't mean you can't read and write. 'hey i no of ppl tht go to special skls n they r not tht thick n he can obviously read n write. probs better thn me' - the good point as well being if the lad cant read or write, how are they having a multi page debate with him?

why should this poor girl have to put up with this shit from what i am guessing are highly educated people? why does it matter that either side have bad spelling or crappy grammar? i mean sometimes things can get a bit tricky to inderstand but it wasn't the case here. this girl is putting up a better / more relavant fight than the other commenters, she knows her audience.

it is not the people who attack with snotty comments like this...

Once again we are presented with the irony that BNP supporters are unable to write fluently in their native language.

Hahahahaha you really can't spell can you? This just shows how uneducated, naive and stupid you are :)

Jamie you are either a) very young or b) practically illiterate, either way, until you learn to spell & use laguage properly its very hard to take you seriously

i guess Jamie is a true representative of the BNP, naive, dyslexic and ill read


...that will bring the change. insulting people does not work! attack the ideas not the spelling! debate does not need to get personal like that! you are more likely to get somewhere with something that a person can quickly go 'oh yeh!' to and then grow from than insults and long winded rants with long werds about how thoughougly you have researched the issue. that's just peacocking.

people like ellen are the future.



and i and anyone else who is naive, dyslexic and ill read, should apparently go and join the bnp! :-O

brilliant (moving) video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWbfc_Jj0Cw

drugs, picturessss, and stupid s key.

jusssssst finsihed my OCN level one (for those that do not know, it is the equivalent of a d grade gcse) in drugs awareness 4 teh individual. i now feel more aware of drugs, individually. it is a cute little course and i look forward to helping yoofs thru it in future.

in other news, rene engstrom, my fave cartoon making person, is having a sketch-a-thon. i never thought i would be so bothered about owning some artz, but srsly, i really really want 1 of her sketches. will have to check my paypal...here are some of the sketches she sent out last time... i want!!

in other news, i have a long email to write and send to teh mello, but need to find new keyboard first, and go to the beach...

meerrgghh

(a cross between urgh and meh)

how i feel about having to work all weekend whilst the sun shines on!

a sad and moving read

about a lady who's son has autism, and upon reaching adulthood became violent and dangerous, and how she, as a mother, has had to deal with it.

hopefully by next week i will have something upbeat on here...

head meets desk

what the hell kind of stupid place do i live in anyway?

besides the impending closure of fairbridge, the most awesomely successful youth project i have ever seen, what the goddam bum ass kind of rubbish is this?

pink lights being used to embarrass teenagers out of places that they hang around that they shouldn't hang around in. what the ey? here's the linketh: BEEB NOOZ

apparently these pink lights highlight imperfections in the skin, and give kids a pinkish tint, which they are hoping boys will find effeminate and therefore bad.

1. er, no.

2. just no

3. 'pink = girly = maybe homosexual = bad' and to be avoided does not equal 'helpful message' trying to keep lads away from things that are pink is just stupid and does nothing to challenge the idea that looking at all gay or feminine (or indeed, refusing to conform to a set of rules for acceptable masculinity) is something that is somehow less than.

4. why would local councils want to highlight medical/physical problems that so many people have and are probably already ashamed enough of in order to get them to conform? i dont even know where to start but i think most people at some point in their day are presented with a barrage of images of perfect skin, constantly reminding them that 'this is the goal, you are far from it' -- and then to have your local council install lights in order to highlight spots? srsly. i'd be all for going down to the local council and bodysnarking their decision makers, if i didn't think it was goddam rude and inappropriate, dehumanising and ultimately crap for everyone who has to put up with the huge negative self image problems perpetuated in this country. rraagh!!!

5. what happened to other approaches, such as defining reasonable spaces for young people to meet up, which are accessible, available and safe? or perhaps *talking* to the groups of young uns meeting up with their friends?

here's a couple of just as ranty posts: here and here