YA Mulberry St.

9/28/17, 4:00PM-5:00PM

722 Mulberry St.

Reading, PA

Berks Teens Matter educates and trains high school students to be part of our mission to reduce teen pregnancy. These students become part of our Youth Ambassador program. One aspect of being a YA is to provide peer education to Olivet Boys and Girls club youth.

With the help of our YA coordinator, the high school students help run a weekly program at the boys and girls club that takes place throughout the year.

Working with kids ranging in ages 8-17, the YAs work one-on-one and in groups, discussing issues like healthy relationships, conflict resolution, anatomy, sexual health and reproduction. Through games, activities and tailored curriculum, OBGC students are given the opportunity to participate. They are also encouraged to submit a question via an anonymous question box at the end of each session.

The following notes are a summary of these weekly sessions.

  • Attendees
    • Jen May – Project Manager
    • Alexandra Banks – Youth Ambassador Coordinator
    • Janeice – Youth Ambassador
    • Terlessa – Youth Ambassador
    • Noriana – Youth Ambassador
  • Before OBGC youth enter, take the large table out of the room. Have youth make a circle out of the chairs.
    • Once youth are seated, Alex asks youth if they remember BTM names from last week. Ask youth to review what they learned last week.
  • Tell the youth that before each lesson we are going to have an activity because we know that it is hard to sit still and pay attention after a long day of school. Today, we will play “”Silent Soccer”.
    • Have all students stand in a circle and spread out. Explain the rule of the game. You will need one medium size ball. The leader counts down “3, 2, 1, silent” and passes the pall to another person in the play area. A player must sit down if: S/he drops the ball. S/he makes a bad pass. They talk or make noise. Play continues until only one person remains. Last player standing get to be first to throw the ball in the next round. If game is progressing slowly, add a challenge by limiting time to throw, having all players take spread out, asking everyone to keep one hand behind their back at all times and so on.
  • Group Guidelines
    • Review Group Guidelines
  • Question Box
    • Explain to youth that the question box is meant for questions about the lesson we go over that day. Tell the youth that they MUST write a question at the end of the lesson.
  • Peer Education
    • “Introduction to Relationships” (see attached to curriculum)
      • Before youth come each Thursday, have YAs review the lesson plan and decide how to split it amongst them.
      • Janeice read the story related to this lesson
      • Noriana, Terlessa, and Janeice shared the responsibility of the discussion of good friendships, bad friendships, good listening, and bad listening by choosing students who have their hands raised and asking questions (see results attached)
      • Janeice and Noriana demonstrated an “Active Listening” scenario. The OBGC youth wanted to participate and were given a BTM bracelet if they were chosen to volunteer to act a scenario out.
    • On Way Out
      • Have the youth state 3 things they learned today. Gave BTM bracelets to the three youth who answered.
      • Have youth put a question in the question box.
        • Results
          • What are relationships points for?
          • What should you do if you’re getting bullied?
        • Time allowed youth to play “Silent Soccer” again as promised.
        • See you next week, 10/5 at 4:00PM
          • Lesson – Figuring Out Friendships
          • Have youth raise hand to speak in order to discourage distraction and side conversations
          • Emphasis on allowing the youth to come up with their own answers and giving everybody a chance to speak
          • In order to get the youth to focus in times of distraction throughout the program, we introduced a concept before beginning and added one more element. Each week, 1 element will be added.
            • Alex snaps her fingers, YAs snap their fingers, and youth snap their fingers until everybody is snapping
            • Alex stomps her feet, YAs stomp their feet, and youth stomp their feet until everybody is stomping
            • Alex claps her hands on her legs, YAs clap their hands on their legs, and youth clap their hands on their legs
            • Alex claps 1 time, YAs clap 1 time, and youth clap 1 time. Do this 3x and their attention will be back to you and the lesson through a fun processTools used
          • Barriers
            • A few youth were not strong at speaking English. This was alright due to having bilingual Youth Ambassadors at each meeting. This barrier was not distracting because we did not hand out homework and allowed the youth to write in their preferred language during small group activities.
            • YAs do not speak loud enough/ask for respect from OBGC youth. They will be reminded to reinforce behavior management and help the youth to focus during the lessons. It was reiterated that these lessons are “peer education” driven which means that most of it should be taught by them. The leaders at OBGC must be asked to step in and/or speak to the youth about respect and appropriate behavior while BTM is there.
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