Youth Activity Leaders
You model behaviors for children and families that they may adopt at home, from demonstrating empathy to showing how to provide physical care to boundary setting.
Since you are most likely seen by parents as allies, your feedback or referrals to families may be more likely welcomed, not resented.
What can you do?
Model respectful behavior and communication, especially when conflicts arise. Your influence can be greater than you know.
The respect that the youth in your program have for you makes you a role model. By demonstrating respectful communication, good sportsmanship, and modeling helpful conflict resolution, you can have a lifelong impact on children and youth.
Be a resource to families.
Have a good working knowledge of resources for children and youth at school, in the community, so you can be a source of good information for youth or parents who may need such information.
Develop policies and procedures with the safety of children and youth in mind.
May organizations have a policy where no adult is alone with a child in any enclosed or private area. Though it’s true that the media tend to focus attention on the very small percentage of youth leaders who abuse their role as trusted adult instead of focusing of the 99% who care deeply for kids, such as policies protect everyone involved.
Many of your organizations already have policies around respectful communication and conflict resolution and it may make sense to have youth and parents sign off on these policies stating they agree to abide by them.
Break isolation.
Take advantage of any opportunity to break the isolation of children or youth that you observe may be too much alone or lonely. You are a source of support, but so are the friendships that you can encourage among children themselves.
Set standards and expectations.
Step in when you see another adult or a youth targeting someone and treating them with disrespect, including racist or sexist language (“you throw like a girl”). Sometimes, it’s more helpful to take a private moment after an incident but sometimes you may want to make the point publicly that certain behaviors are not acceptable in your program.
Be there for ALL the kids you care for.
Learn more about how to work with children with disabilities and how to create inclusive environments and enrich activities for children with specific learning needs.