Self Awareness

Self Awareness

These resources help young people understand their own identity and who they are in relationship to others. Believing in the power of their own voices and actions is an important step in youth engaging responsibly in a diverse and interconnected community. 


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 you care about. The participants envision their community or world in ten years and describe what it looks like. Then they discuss the first steps they can take toward their vision. Participants learn to react to a negative situation with positive action.

 

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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.

 

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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. 

 

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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.

 

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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. 

 

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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.

 

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To take meaningful philanthropic or civic action in our communities, we must get to know our community resources and needs. These activities help us explore the strengths and issues that make up our community. Understanding your community nonprofits and other resources is an important step in making informed decisions as engaged and justice-oriented citizens. 

These resources help young people understand their own identity and who they are in relationship to others. Believing in the power of their own voices and actions is an important step in youth engaging responsibly in a diverse and interconnected community. 

Why do communities want to involve youth of all ages and life experiences as changemakers and leaders? Because we believe youth make us better. Learning to Give and the Council of Michigan Foundations are proud to share the following resources to help organizations welcome youth voice and action. We share best practices for quality and meaningful youth engagement of their time, talent, ties (network), testimony (speaking up), and treasure.