Planning For Successful Games For Youth Groups: An Event Organizers Guide

Organizing events for a youthful population can easily turn into a nightmare

. While it can be one of the most interesting, stimulating and rewarding engagements, organizing for youth events carries with it gigantic responsibilities and obligations. This is considering that many youth groups feature a wide variety of emotionally unbalanced, hormone-charged, behaviourally-troubled, life-ignorant, restless, impatient and highly aggressive members. Even at their best behaviour, with the best of intentions, youth groups are often times chaotic and highly volatile.

Nothing in ordinary life or in general leadership practice can prepare you to lead such a group. The key, however, is to find an area of common interest amongst all the members and then rally the group to focus towards that common goal. Games have unanimously proved to be the single most effective way of focusing a youth group towards a common agenda, which explains why virtually all successful youth events and programs are organized around games. Nevertheless, the challenge is in selecting the most appropriate games for youth groups to match diverse settings, occasions and memberships.

For most organizers who have gained wide experience while working with young people, selecting and then facilitating games for youth groups, is an art. One must balance between varieties of concerns ranging from safety to stimulating participation, from skills gained to skills required, and from the purpose of the event to the age of participants. The bottom line however remains in utilizing the vibrant youthful energy and focusing it on beneficial engagements that will not keep them safe but also allow them to explore new knowledge, new insights, new inspirations and new self-awareness.

Youth group games can be a vital tool in teaching morals. They can help build maturity, create respect, trigger social awareness, enforce discipline, boost a sense of responsibility, and even inculcate time management skills. It is important therefore that the organizer selects the group games with the bigger perspective being the value that each game will offer. However, as mentioned before, there must also be a perfect balance between the aesthetic entertainment ability of a game and its value. A brainteaser, for instance, can be used to generate adequate entertainment (to keep everybody's attention) while also adding knowledge value if it is focused on an area that is of interest to the event/program such as drugs, teen pregnancy, academic performance, etc.

It is also important to have a keen sense of timing. The best games for youth groups tend to be relatively short and simple to understand, to compensate for the attendees short attention spans and restlessness. Even the best of games can be ruined if they drag on and on until everyone is bored. The games must also be uncomplicated. The explanation of the game should ideally not last for long before everyone understands it lest the participants lose interest even before it begins.

The games must also balance between the capabilities and skills available in the group. Whether it is a football game, basketball, riddles, trust dares, brainteasers, relays, acquaintance games or food fights, the games must solicit for maximal participation of the group by balancing the athletic, cognitive and physical skills required to a level where everyone can participate. In short, organizing games for youth groups is an art of balance and foresight where in most cases the end-results are always worth the bother.

by: William Clark

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