YELLS staff and youth rung in 2020 with New Year’s Eve-themed activities that challenged us to think about how we can grow our skills and spread our impact in 2020.
While our students were still enjoying their holiday break, our staff met to get a head start in putting the YELLS model into practice. The morning started out with exciting and fun choice activities. Our staff like to play, too! Our staff had the opportunity to experience first hand how we want to welcome our youth when they return. New Year choice activities included: human ring toss, beach towel volleyball, Blink! Card game, four square, firework painting, and flour face challenge (a messy favorite). As the team wound down from all of the fun, they had a chance to reflect on which activities were their favorites and then create a database of new activities for our students’ first day back!
The staff continued learning about ways to engage our youth, and started creating a vision for our youth for the new year. Broken into teams, the staff navigated through a series of challenges designed to model what a fun, engaging, and meaningful lesson could look like. Instead of sitting and discussing or writing out ideas, the staff experienced what it feels like as a student to learn in this environment, and how hands-on activities, in line with the Kolb Experiential Learning Model, inspire creative thinking and meaningful discussion.
The first challenge they faced was a colorfully lit “balloon drop” in which staff had to pop balloons suspended from the ceiling in search of instructions. At this challenge staff reflected on ideas about ways to empower youth to go above and beyond and fulfill their greatness.
Next it was time to “’Toast’ to the YELLS Family” where team members had to throw pieces of toasted bread at a stack of champagne glasses in order to proceed to the next step. Staff discussed ways we can ensure that everyone feels welcomed at YELLS as a part of the YELLS family.
Then it was time to “Spark Youth-Led Community Building” which involved using a lit candle to burn through fishing line, releasing their instructions from the ceiling. Staff reflected on their vision for youth-led community building and community engagement.
Finally, our team had the chance to “Cook up a Third Place” in which they got to create their own croissant with fillings of their choice while discussing their ideas and vision for the Community Action Cafe and how it can truly be a space that welcome community.
All of these activities came together to help staff remember our values and inspire them to empower our youth to live these in their lives and in our community. Our staff then had the chance to meet with their programs as a team to put this into action and plan an exciting New Year’s Eve themed welcome back for our students!
Before the team knew it, it was time to welcome our students back for their first day of the semester! As our students entered on their first day back, they were welcomed with music, games, and lots of new choice activities to choose from! Some of our teens were even brave enough to try the flour face game!
Next our high school students had the opportunity to “knock out” what they wanted to leave behind in 2019, as they stepped into the boxing ring. They also celebrated their accomplishments of the past year.
Then it was time for our high school students to put a lot of trust in their friends (and us!) as they were broken into groups and blindfolded, preparing to go on a journey of teamwork challenges, without their sense of sight. Each team navigated the Cafe by following a string that was strung from room to room. They cautiously relied on each other with only the string to guide them.
First up, they had to find 6 cups before building a cup tower. This was challenging, but it got more difficult from there. They followed the guiding string to the back room. Once there, they were given five spoonfuls to blindly taste. As a team they had to identify something spicy (jalapeno), sweet (chocolate pudding), salty (pretzel), sour (warhead candy), and bitter (grapefruit juice) using their senses of smell and taste. At the next destination they had to use their sense of touch and dig through a bowl of dry rice and find 5 small safety pins. It’s harder than it looks! After they completed this challenge they navigated to their final challenge using the string. Once they were in the conference room, one team member was secretly given a word. The group had to line up, one behind the other, as they drew the word on each other’s backs. Once the word got to the front of the line, that student drew what they thought the word was on the wall, all while blindfolded! This was by far the hardest challenge for the students, but they had successfully completed their journey!
Once they made it back to the front of the Cafe and their eyes had a chance to adjust, the students had time to debrief and learned that when you don’t have a vision(or are blindfolded) it makes it much harder to accomplish your goals. They were then able to started writing out their vision for 2020, and broke that vision down into manageable goals.
Our K-5th students stayed just as busy downstairs as they began to explore their emotions and learn about different feelings. Youth identified different emotions by placing raindrops under each “feeling” category. Next, they’ll learn skills for how to regulate their emotions effectively. This is just the start of our students understanding the theme for the month, “We Create Peace,” and the importance of connecting with their emotions so that they can “create peace” in the year ahead.
It was time to celebrate! Keeping with tradition, both age groups had a blast counting down to the new year! The students toasted to the new year with sparkling grape juice, music, and a New Year’s count down. Both students and staff are looking forward to a wonderful 2020 full of vision and purpose!
Happy New Year!
