Self Awareness
These resources help young people understand their own identity, what they care about, and who they are in relationship to others. This is an important step in building community and in the service-learning process.
Blue Sky Envisioning Activity
Blue Sky is a visioning activity that helps you get to know yourself (self-awareness), the people around you (social awareness), and what we care about. The participants envision their community or world in ten years and describe what it looks like. Then they discuss first steps they can take toward their vision. Participants learn to react to a negative situation with positive action.
Map Your Heartbreak Activity
This activity helps youth discover their giving passion. The first step to meaningful philanthropy is identifying issues that really matter to us. In this activity, youth follow their hearts...or rather their heartbreaks to discover what they are passionate about.
Culturally Responsive SEL for Social Justice
The promise of SEL is that we develop healthy identities, relationships, and emotional intelligence. These activities guide youth to foster their personal and collective voice and role in diverse communities. This practice includes creating safe spaces to talk with courage about what really matters and honestly confront what isn't working, like injustice and hate.
We recommend that leaders who use these resources pre-read them, practice them, and discuss concepts with colleagues.
Cultural Competence
With a vision of building a life of generosity and community engagement, these activities spark personal responsibility for the good of all through words, intentions, and actions. We examine what it means to be culturally competent in today's society and build awareness of the richness of cultures in the world and respect for diverse people. This Inclusive Communities toolkit guides young people to speak up about accessibility and inclusion.
Youth Spark
What is something that makes you excited to get up in the morning and gives you energy? Whatever that vision is, that is your "spark." Young people may not know what their spark is today, and it may change many times over their lives, but we can start today to explore how generosity could spark meaning in one's day and life.
Effective and Respectful Meetings
Build trust and belonging with effective meetings! This guide helps youth inquire, discuss, and share their thoughts and opinions about themselves and their community on a regular basis. We provide different meeting types, group agreements, activities that build safety and belonging, and ways to raise youth leadership and voice.