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How to make change happen and to solve conflicts?

Focusing on navigating change and resolving conflicts, this toolkit equips young people with tools to handle challenges in personal and professional contexts. Through participatory exercises, they will explore the dynamics of change, learn to manage value-based conflicts, and build skills for fostering constructive solutions.

Activity 1

GETTING ACQUAINTED AGAIN!

Estimated Time 40 Minutes

This activity allows participants to re-engage with each other, whilst exploring themes of change through a series of interactive tasks.

Materials and equipment required:

  • Sticky notes
  • Pens for participants
  • Poster board
  • Marker pens

Description of the activity:

1. Icebreaker - 10 min.

Each participant chooses and object in the room and introduces themselves to group as that object. E.g. – I have four legs and a comfortable pad to sit on. After doing the exercise, briefly reflect on how participants feel and accepted the change of the usual way of greeting and introducing oneself.

2. Introduction and presentation of a module - 5 min.

The youth worker presents the module and its objectives and reminds all of the rules for group work accepted by the participants during the first encounter.

3. How does the changes affect me? - 15 min.

  1. Participants arrange themselves in a circle, each extending a hand, closing their eyes and moving towards the centre. They must try to find and hold the hand of another participant. Ensure all find a partner.
  2. In pairs, one leads the other, who has their eyes closed, by holding them by the shoulders and guiding them movements around the room. The roles are then reversed.
  3. All participants line up and each holds the shoulders of the one in front of him. The first participant has their eyes open, as does one in the middle and at the end. The first participant leads the group trying to ensure the comfort of the other participants.
  4. The group divides into two. The first group completes the sentence ‘change makes me feel nervous…’ Everyone adds some words to the phrase, on sticky notes.
    The second group completes the sentence ‘change makes me feel excited...’. Everyone adds some words to the phrase, on sticky notes.

The facilitator asks the participants, after listening to the phrases they have created, if they can share anything more about how they felt during the activities, in terms of unusual change.

Finally, the facilitator summarises how change exerts influence over our feelings, attitudes, behaviours and that is why we have to consider that influence when we introduce a change.

Tips for Youth Workers:

  • These introductory activities offer participants to experience a situation of change. The facilitator should give clear instructions because confusion and misunderstanding on the part of some of the participants will create problems in the discussion - how did I feel in these situations of unusual change?
  • It is good to use the momentum from these activities for the key exercise - how change impacts me.
  • If time remains, participants will try to work out their own definition of change. The facilitator should watch for time boundaries and then summarise the key points about change, how it affects us and why we need to deal with change and, where necessary, initiate it.