Engaging Youth Over the Summer

Getting youth to engage in support groups can be challenging, especially throughout the Summer. So how do you get youth to WANT to be a part of a support group?  I ran into this challenge while coordinating Circles in Los Alamos, NM. I was struggling with keeping youth engaged throughout a full 8-week session during the Summer, so we had to think outside the box.

We asked ourselves, what activities did youth in our community want to do? After answering that question, we started partnering with local businesses like Jiu-Jitsu studios, Equine Therapy programs, Nature Centers, and Art studios. We immediately saw a difference in the amount of youth who registered for our groups and an improvement on the percentage of youth who stuck with the full 8-week program. Fortunately, we were able to run longer groups over the Summer, a full 90 min, and using The Council for Boys and Young Men 7-step model for all of our groups, we could adhere to fidelity. 

1. Opening Ritual, 2.5min
2. Theme Introduction, 2.5min
3. Warm Up, Partnering program activity, 30-35 min
4. Check-In, 10min
5. Activity, 20min
6. Sharing of activity, 10min
1. Application Question, 5min
7. Close, 5min

Partnering with local businesses turned out to be an amazing strategy. We were able to share the Circle experience with other community members, spread awareness of Circle work, and give youth the chance to interact with more caring adults in the community. 

If you are struggling with enrollment, find out where the youth in your community are asking to be. If you can meet the youth in a location where they are already planning to be then you are removing the transportation barrier. Here are some more examples of places that you can reach out to.

• Day camps, YMCA/YWCA
• Gymnastic Gyms
• Sports teams
• Dance studios
• Climbing Gyms

Reach out to me at danielle@onecirclefoundation.org for more support on enrollment strategies and implementation. Happy Summer Circles!