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.

how to eat more beans.

1. breakfast time? why not eat BEANS on toast?
2. bored of that? add AN EGG or CHEESE
3. Lunchtime? How about BEANS with potato? (chips/mash/jacket/boiled)
4. Dinnertime? Well, time to try BEAN SURPRISE!* recipe below
5. Still peckish? try BEANS on toast again for a tasty snack.

next time: BEAN cookies. Tastygood.

Bean surprise
you will need:
an onion - fried
tinned tomatoes
BEANS
3 bean salad
BBQ sauce

instructions: combine these in a pan, heat and stir til beany.

*

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

valentines nom, curtosy of an m&s voucher that needed spending!

this dinner is the wrong way around due to blogger being rubbish, but in nom order,

falafel, hummus, olive rolls, olives, tomatoes, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, rocket etc

fresh pasta with tomato and basil sauce, tomatoes, olives etc and cod fillet

mango and cherries

lemon cheesecake!

6 item wardrobe challenge.

The 6 item wardrobe challenge.
http://sixitemsorless.com/the-experiment/

If you could only wear 6 items for 1 month (coats, accessories, gym clothes, underwear and shoes exempt) what would they be.

1. Black leggings (I have 4 pairs, having multiples of the same thing doesn't count)
2. Black apron dress
3. Black cardigan
4. Black skinny smart trousers
5. Purple t shirt(I have three of these)
6. Purple cardigan

This is going to be a really dull month in black and purple! I'd look like a bruise! At least tights, shoes, scarves and accessories would jazz it up! But tbh, that's pretty much my wardrobe now, the black dress has been leading my wardrobe collection since 2007... meh, if it aint broke...

because i miss them