There's a place here for everyone
This toolkit provides youth workers with strategies to create inclusive, safe spaces that foster trust and motivation among participants. By embracing diversity and building collective understanding, young people can engage fully in activities that help them discover their unique strengths and perspectives.
Toolkit Overview ▼
Topic or issues covered
- Managing the diversity of the youth group
- The importance of creating a safe space
Aim of activities
Create and promote an inclusive safe space where all participants feel comfortable and involved in all group activities and actions.
Learning objectives
- Get to know each participant in the group
- Collectively build safe spaces through assembly and consensus
- Open up to new perspectives on the inclusion of all participants
Target group
15-30 years old
Brief summary of active and participatory methodologies used
All the activities proposed in this toolkit include active and participatory methodologies such as group work, participative discussion and brainstorming.
Quality standard checklist
✅ Inclusion and diversity: the activity is open to all young people, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background.
✅ Respect: this activity promotes an environment where young people respect others, their viewpoints and opinions, even if they differ from their own.
✅ Sustainability: this activity promotes behaviours and practices that respect the environment and are sustainable in the long term.
✅ Personal growth: offer opportunities for the personal and professional development of young people, helping them discover and cultivate their talents and passions.
Activity 1
CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
This icebreaker activity helps participants build connections and get to know each other through fun and engaging questions in a rotating circle format.
Materials and equipment required:
- Questions list printed for every participant
Description of the activity:
This ice-breaker activity is particularly effective if participants do not know each other well. The facilitator will distribute the participants in two concentric circles facing each other. Each group will rotate in opposite directions and the participants who are face to face will introduce themselves around a set of questions. After a few minutes (2, 3, 4… the facilitator will choose the exact time depending on different factors such as number of participants, time available and depth you want to reach) they will rotate again and the process will be repeated.
Questions:
- If you were a pasta meal, what sauce would you serve yourself with?
- If you could be a famous artist for a day, who would you be?
- If you were a season of the year... would you be autumn, winter, spring or summer?
- If you could go on an all-expenses-paid trip to a country right now, which one would you choose?
- You have just crash-landed on a desert island and you can only take one person with you; who would it be?
- Any other questions you want to create
Tips for Youth Workers:
- If you want each face-to-face meeting to be long, we recommend setting up as many chairs as there are participants, so that they don't get tired.
- Sometimes participants in this activity are so preoccupied with thinking about their answer that they do not concentrate on listening to their partner. To alleviate this, encourage them to ask supplementary questions to force them to listen to the answers they are given.
Activity 2
BUILDING UP OUR BUILDING
This creative activity encourages teamwork and communication as participants collaborate to construct a symbolic structure that reflects shared goals.
Materials and equipment required:
- Flip chart with a drawn building with large foundation columns
- Sticky notes
- Pens
Description of the activity:
This ice-breaking activity is designed to be done with participants who know each other well. The facilitator will draw on a flip chart a building with large foundation columns. The facilitator will explain that the building is a metaphor of their group, and that they all contribute to its construction with attributes, knowledge, attitudes, etc... Then, the facilitator will invite them to use post-its to fill in these columns, highlighting the qualities (virtues, attributes…) of their peers (not of themselves) that help to build the group in all senses of the word. They will then read the post-its in order to reinforce the collective capacities and to identify the potential of all participants.
Tips for Youth Workers:
- If you notice that some participants don't leave many comments and others do, try to assign them as facilitators in order to balance contributions equally, whilst not affecting self-esteem.
- The 'building' can be represented in a variety of ways and not only by a drawing, for example using toilet paper rolls to hold a medium heavy object.
Activity 3
GROUP GROUND RULES
This activity establishes a collaborative foundation by guiding participants to create shared rules for respectful and effective group interactions.
Materials and equipment required:
- Flip charts
- A large piece of cardboard
- Marker pens
- Pens
Description of the activity:
After an ice-breaker, the facilitator will tell the group about the importance of creating a safe space for anybody and ground rules. So, she/he will challenge the group to make their own constitution. Let's use a group of 25 participants as an example.
The first step consists of making 8 teams of 3-4 people to brainstorm anything important to be reflected in the constitution, from a universal point of view, not only focussing on the individuals who are currently part of the group. (10 min)
The second step consists of joining two teams together (so there will be 4 groups of 6-8 people) to keep on discussing the constitution based on the rules they discussed in their previous teams. (20min)
The third step is, as you can guess, to join, again, two groups (so there will be 2 groups of 12-16 people) and to do the same task. (20 min)
The last step is to bring the last two groups together, present the two proposals and obtain an official constitution agreed by all. (30 min)
The final constitution will be written on a large piece of cardboard and signed by all participants and the youth worker, thus reflecting everyone's commitment to comply with it. Conclude by saying that it is an open constitution, so if anyone feels that any point should be added, deleted or updated, it will be discussed in the group. And, of course, if any new young people arrive, they will be asked to read the Constitution, propose, if they wish, any changes, discuss it and sign it. (10 minutes)
Tips for Youth Workers:
- If participants are blocked when it comes to proposing the rules, you can do a pre-activity in which you ask them what they would like to see happen in the group and what they would not like to see. Then ask them to turn these ideas into rules.
