After a rather long (baby) hiatus, I'm back. Is anyone out there anymore? I guess we'll find out.
Anyway, here's an interesting project we did at the beginning of this year with a new group of youth who didn't know each other very well. It'd be fun for any group at any time of the year though.
FACEBOOK PHOTO ESSAY
Needed: one facebook page (create one for your group; it's easy and you'll seem cool to them if you do), one digital camera, and enough 8 1/2x11 white paper and black thick markers for everyone.
After a general intro and check in, I asked each youth to think of one thing they'd like others to know about them. It could be something that might affect how they were viewed in the group, or something they wanted to make sure others knew, or... really anything they wanted to add but hadn't felt comfortable sharing in their check in.
Each youth wrote their statement in LARGE letters on their white paper, and we took each one outside individually for a photo. They got to direct the photo shoot themselves, so they picked a place and pose that corresponded to what they had written.
After the meeting, all the photos were posted on our group facebook page (untagged so they remained private and viewable only to our group; the one posted here is with permission). Each youth was asked to post a "comment" during the next week on everyone else's photo and statement.
The result: a great photo essay about our youth that generated tons of wonderful and insightful comments; an activity that youth who had not been part of could still participate in; an activity that built trust among the youth; and a chance for youth to get to know each other in their own time and outside the church.
