Workshop

This Sunday I participated in my first workshop with the youth in the youth group. The theme was personal responsibility and meeting your goals. I helped to plan the workshop with the other facilitators during the week, where we had a long argument about the difference between a goal and an objective. In the end, it didn’t really matter. We had the kids write down a goal that was specific, achievable and personal to them. They did a meditation activity where they laid on the floor and listened to a Pablo Neruda poem about how people shouldn’t feel bad about who they are, everyone has problems and difficulties to overcome to reach their goals and that people improve themselves by learning from their mistakes. Gustavo sang a song about the challenges of being a youth, and gave a motivational talk about how they had to determine small steps to take in order to reach their final goal. At the end we split into small groups and they discussed specifically what their goals were with each other. In my group, many had the goal of finishing their studies. One is studying accounting, a few were finishing high school, and one is in medical school. Nancy already finished high school and university and is focusing on finding work. A couple of the guys have started studying auto-mechanics and had the goal of finding work in their field when finished. Jania, one of the youth, facilitated the small group, and did a fantastic job! I was really impressed by her ability to keep the discussion focused and ask questions to deepen their exploration of their objectives. To evaluate the workshop, we played a fun game called Pass the Balloon. We blew up balloons and put little pieces of paper inside with questions written on them. Hidden among the regular evaluation questions like how were the facilitators, were things like Do the funky chicken dance (see photo). We had a good time and the youth seemed to get something out of it as well…