Video conferencing for your youth group
To enable interactive, remote youth group meetings you might want to consider using video/web conferencing tools like zoom. If you do, please download and read this document - I have prepared some guidance on how to do this safely and well. Please take the time to think this through and contact me if you need any further help.
Youth Online
HTB in London have taken their youth group online, offering podcasts, live streaming and a YouTube channel. Visit their website and get some ideas!
Coronavirus: A youth ministry live blog
The YouthScape live blog page which will also be kept up-to-date with lots of ideas and sharing some good practice. It aims to be a regularly-updated hub dedicated to helping youth leaders respond to the Coronavirus epidemic.
Group Challenges
A wonderful colleague, Katherine, from the diocese of Leeds has put together some great ideas for photography, art, world record breaking and learning challenges to keep your youth group busy over the coming weeks.
The emphasis on these challenges is not to be the best, but the feeling of community and doing something together!!
Photography Challenges:
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Photograph something around the house beginning with every letter of the alphabet
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Photograph something of every colour of the rainbow
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Take a photo that only has objects of one colour
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Take a close-up picture of something
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Take a photo in black and white
Art Challenges
These can be limitless!! You can also find 30 day art challenges online, but here’s a few ideas to get you started:
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Do a drawing without taking the pen off the paper
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Draw / paint a self-portrait
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Draw a picture that is no more than 1 inch tall / wide
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Draw / paint about something that inspires you
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Draw / paint something from your favourite book
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Invent an imaginary friend and draw / paint them
World Record Challenges
Challenge the group to try and beat some silly world records:
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Most spoons balanced on the human body (79 to beat)
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How quickly can they eat 3 cream crackers (14.45 seconds to beat)
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Farthest distance to blow a pea (7.51m to beat)
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Farthest distance to throw a paper airplane (69.14m to beat)
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Tallest toilet paper tower in 30 seconds only touching one roll at a time (28 rolls to beat)
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Most underpants put on in 1 minute (18 to beat)
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Largest bubble gum bubble blown (50.8cm to beat)
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Most Smarties / M&Ms eaten with chopsticks (one at a time) in 1 minute (20 to beat)
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Most dominoes stacked in 30 seconds (48 to beat)
Learn Something New Challenges:
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New language – e.g. Duolingo
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Crash Course – www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse (loads of subjects to pick from)
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Challenge everyone to learn as many digits of Pi as possible (there’s a song to help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HRkKznJoZA)
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Something physical – yoga, tai chi, Pilates, weight training (can be done with cans of beans!!), deep breathing / meditation (tutorials for all can be found online)
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Writing – do a mini NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where you set a word count and challenge them to write a story in that time frame, challenge them to write a poem every day.
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TedTalks – encourage them to watch a new Ted Talk each day (www.Ted.com)
Netflix Party
So Netflix party is a thing! You can watch a film or series from this streaming service altogether while apart! As each young person watches they'll be able to comment and message each other throughout via the website. Take a look.
National Youth Agency
The National Youth Agency have a great page on their website, which offers advice for young people and youth workers. This will be updated as the situation progresses.
