Facilitating !
Youth-Led
Initiatives:
Hands-On Skills for Adult
Allies
Katie Richards-Schuster, PhD
University of Michigan School of
Social Work
Overview
1. Opening: What does it mean to be Adult Ally? (10 min)
2. Strategies for recruiting, engaging, and
supporting leadership development: Learning from
one another (35 minutes)
3. Facilitating effective meetings: brainstorming,
assessment & skills (35 minutes)
4. Soliciting Feedback to Strengthen Practice (10
min)
5. Closing: Resources and Ideas for Taking Home
Icebreaker: One Word
1. Write first word/or words that come to
mind when you hear the term: Adult Ally?
2. Get up and share your word. Find one
person, introduce yourself, share your word
and why
3. Add word to word wall. Stay standing.
4. Discuss ideas- similarities, differences,
and general thoughts.
Adult Allies are….
« Coach
« Supporter
« Organizer
« Coordinator
« Ally
« Nurturer
« Capacity Builder
« Educator
« Challenger
« Bridger
« Mentor
« Resource-Provider
« “Legitimater”
« “Snack-Buyer/
Copy Maker”
« Transporter
« Perspective-Taker
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!
Youth
Stepping
Forward
Adults
Stepping
Forward
& Back
!
Adults in Youth-Led Work:!
“A Dance”!
!
Stepping Forward & Back
Stepping Forward
Create
Space &
Structure
Build
Capacity
Encourage
Participation
Support &
Nurture
Youth Voice
Stepping Back
Provide
Resources
Key Skills for Working with
Youth
1.  Ability to recruit and engage youth to
participate
2.  Ability to help facilitate effective meetings
(supporting youth to lead effective
meetings, co-facilitating, or helping initiate
meetings)
3.  Ability to reflect on the process and gather
feedback for improvement
Recruiting & Engaging
Youth!
Adapted from Cindy Carlson, Hampton Virginia Youth Commission
Core Leadership Group
Youth-Led Committee
Initial Engagement
STARTING WITH YOU:!
Overcoming Challenges & Identifying Strategies Keeping youth engaged-challenges:
Supporting youth leadership- challenges
Keeping youth engaged –Ideas for
Strategies:
Supporting youth leadership-Ideas for
strategies
Recruitment, Engagement
& Training
Take 3 minutes to brainstorm your challenges &
strategies
Turn to your neighbor. As a pair, spend 5 minutes
sharing ideas and brainstorming additional ideas
What are some of the challenges?
What are some specific strategies?
What are new ideas?
Quick round robin to share out of strategies.
Recruitment & Engagement: !
What are strategies you use?
Strategies for developing leadership
Strategies for keeping youth involved
Strategies for
Initial Engagement
Common Challenges: Scenarios
Break into groups to discuss some common challenges
Around room you’ll see different scenarios. Ideally, we’ll have groups of 4-5
people/group.
•  Scenario #1 OVER COMMITMENT: Ideas?
•  Scenario # 2 LOSING MOTIVATION: Ideas?
•  Scenario #2 CHALLENGING LOGISTICS: Ideas?
PICK ONE. Take 10 minutes to discuss, write ideas down on paper.
Quick sharing of strategies across the whole.
Common Challenges: Scenarios
Scenario #1 OVER COMMITMENT
•  Prioritize activities: Is everything necessary?
•  Create multiple ways for them to be involved
•  Ask people to make a commitment- sign a contract, set incentives
Scenario # 2 LOSING MOTIVATION
•  Icebreakers, energizers, check-ins to refocus
•  Brainstorming goals- set vision
•  Small wins, celebrating success
•  Rotate leadership- engage youth in various leadership roles
Scenario #3 LOGISTICS:
•  Using “group me”, social media for scheduling meetings
•  Blogging, using video conferencing for meetings
•  Find a central location to hold meeting, set up carpool if accessible
Effective Meetings
1.  Think about any youth meeting that you
have been to that has NOT worked well.
2.  Use the sticky notes to write down all the
things that did NOT work well. Use one
sticky note for each idea.
3.  Round robin: Go around and share one idea
4. 
Cluster ideas: What doesn’t work?
Developing Skills for
Effective Meetings
BEFORE: Room set-up, location, transportation, timing,
food, materials, communication, preparation
DURING: Setting expectations, flow of the agenda,
opening, leadership and facilitation, process/action,
closing
AFTER: Communication, follow-up, tasks/assignments,
in-between meeting engagement
Activity: Developing Plans for an Effective
Meeting
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS.
10 MINUTES to discuss and plan. Each group will share ideas with the whole.
Scenario #1:
You have a group of students who have been participating for a long time and a
group of students who are coming to the group for the first time.
Scenario #2:
The last three meetings students have been “checking out”- getting on their
phones, some have been falling asleep, and others are just disengaged.
Scenario #3:
You have two members of the group that are really dominating the discussions.
They are constantly talking and want to be the leaders in every step of the way. You
are happy they are so engaged but worry that others are feeling silenced.
Soliciting Feedback
Creating check-ins &
feedback loops
Evaluation activities
Critical reflection on
experiences
Examples- Resources
1.  “Weather” check-ins, opening go arounds
2.  Motivation forms
3.  Journals, writing, anonymous feedback
4.  Skill assessments
5.  Closing assessments, closing take aways
6.  Before and after/pre and post pictures
7.  Reviewing progress (what’s working, not
working, and what can we change; where
have we been? Where do we need to go?)
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Resource Guide:
1. Icebreakers, team builders,
energizers, reflection activities
2. Tips and strategies
3. Web resources
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For More Information:
Ka#e Richards-­‐Schuster, PhD School of Social Work University of Michigan, Ann Arbor [email protected]