Community Builders
There are three things that will need to be shared with the group each week – with a growing understanding each week: The Four Pillars; What Is YDM?; and Violence In Women’s Lives – What Is It? As you plan what community builders you want to share with the group, put thought into activities that can reinforce these three things. Ideas could include:
The Last Word:
The participants should stand in a circle. One participant moves and stands randomly in front of another. He/she makes a statement (e.g., “It is such a lovely day”). The person spoken to will move to another person and make a statement starting with the last word in the statement he/she received (e.g., “Day one of the course was very tiring”). Each participant takes turns to ensure that everybody gets a chance to participate. (Helps with listening and communication)
Music Story:
Using music to tell a story: having instruments available for the group.
The Four Pillars Interpreted: Have the group brainstorm and develop a skit, song or other creative way to share the Four Pillars. When they are ready to perform the skit at the end of the evening invite others in your site to join you to watch.
This session is all about helping the group get to know each other, listening closely and communicating with each other.
Spider Web:
The participants stand in a circle. A ball of yarn or similar is given to one participant who tells the group something about her/himself, such as name, where s/he is from, what grade he/she is in, why s/he is taking part in the weekly group, etc. (The information to include will depend on the size of the group and the time allotted for the activity.)
The participant with the ball of yarn holds onto the end of the yarn and throws the ball to another participant in the circle, who in turn must introduce her/himself in the same way. Participants continue introducing themselves by tossing the ball around the circle until all participants form part of this spider web.
As soon as everyone has introduced her/himself, the person holding the ball returns it to the person who threw it to her/him, as s/he repeats the information about that person. That person then returns the ball to the person who threw it to her/him, repeating her/his information. This continues around the circle, with the ball following its previous path in reverse order until it reaches the participant who first introduced her/himself.
Note: Warn the participants beforehand of the importance of paying attention to each introduction, since they will not know who will be throwing the ball at them.
Facilitators Comic Skit:
The Students Commission has a comic produced by a youth that was developed from our existing facilitation materials and manuals. The comic has 8 characters. Eight volunteers agree to take on the comic and bring it to life via a skit.
Have the group do a 'table read' (where they all read the comic – one person reads until they have had enough and they pass it along to the next person) of the comic.
From there each participant decides what character they would be and they act it out once or twice in rehearsal.
Following this the group presents their final play.
Catwalk Challenge:
This is very much a creative activity that is ideal as the groups begin to become closer and more connected. Separate the group into two teams who will then work together to produce an outfit for a particular occasion. (For example: the launch of the Blueprint Website Party). Using only what is onsite where you host your meetings, the group has to design, make, model and market the outfit. By working together and putting critical thought into the ‘why’ they designed it the way they did – it can be an excellent opener on the discussion that fashion / media play into gender roles and stereotypes. Feel free to contact other sites or the SC to learn about more ideas for community builders, including ones specific to the issue.
