Building Trust is a major part in the foundation of interpersonal relationships, whether they are with parents, young people, friends, or co-workers. It is just as easy to build trust as it is to break it down. It is important to put effort into trust building, which in turn develops mutual respect.
Healthy Relationships consist of honesty, trust, respect and open communication. In a healthy relationship, people spend time together and apart, are able to openly express their feelings and concerns, and personal boundaries are respected.
Support & Guidance comes in many forms, and it can be as simple as being a soundboard for youth to bounce their ideas off of while providing suggestions. Finding the right balance of support and guidance can be tricky as adults want to guide and support and must be careful not to take control away from youth. The best thing to do is just ask the youth what support they need and to make oneself available to them, which is often above and beyond role descriptions.
Respect Ideas. It is essential that adults promote and encourage discussion in a way that does not put youth down or make them feel uncomfortable, because, it is easy to break someone’s confidence with a negative remark or dismissal.
Group Agreements, or Community Standards, can be the most valuable aspect of the entire program. It is an opportunity for the participants to create the standards of how they want to be as a group and the principles that they want to live by and strive for during the program (and beyond!). All groups need some form of community standards and they can look like lots of things: a mural, a poem, a list of principles, or a sculpture created together! The process of creating community standards is an invaluable experience for any group.
Critical thinking is used when we see or hear something and test whether or not there is evidence to support or oppose it, and if it makes sense for us. For example, someone can use critical thinking when seeing messages in the media by asking questions like: Where do these messages come from? What is their purpose? How does the message make me feel? Do I agree with the ethics behind it?
