I. What Is Leadership and Service?

Young people today understand leadership in broader terms than previous generations did. The common understanding of a leader – as a single, all-knowing expert who manages a group – has given way to the idea of someone who is willing to recognize a problem and collaborate with others toward creating and implementing a solution. Everyone has the potential to be a leader, and leadership can take many forms – depending on a person’s strengths, interests and experiences. Members learn to take on various leadership roles at different times. Leadership is more than directing a committee, planning an event or speaking to a group. Leaders are people who think for themselves, express their thoughts and feelings honestly and directly, act on their own beliefs and inspire others to do so. An act of leadership could be taking charge of a situation or a group, but it also could be simply helping someone without being asked. 

Contributing acts of service for others or your community is an important demonstration of leadership. Youth who are involved with community service or who volunteer in political activities are more likely as adults to have a strong work ethic, to volunteer and to vote. Volunteering is also associated with the development of greater respect for others, leadership skills and an understanding of citizenship that can carry over into adulthood. By developing youth leadership and providing opportunities to give back through volunteering, Clubs support young people to become productive, caring and responsible adults.  

II. Leadership and Service Core Program Area

Leadership and Service has been a foundational area of focus for the Boys & Girls Club Movement since the beginning, providing all youth the opportunity to build critical leadership skills that support their development and enable them to contribute to their community in meaningful ways. 

Priority Outcome: Leadership and Service programs and resources develop leadership skills in youth by increasing their confidence in their leadership skills; their ability to use leadership skills to create meaningful change, and their motivation to become leaders and inspire others. All programs sequentially build core competencies across age groups in three primary domains: self-leadership, leadership with others, leadership in the community.

Leadership and Service Skills

III. Staff Role in Leadership Development

Staff members’ role is to encourage youth and support them in building skills. Staff members create opportunities for youth to develop a sense of belonging, recognizing their contributions and accomplishments and helping them build relationships with their peers. Staff members should use youth-centered approaches to reframe conflict, acknowledging young people’s feelings and helping them see the connection between their emotions, behaviors and consequences, and identify their own solutions.

All youth can and should build leadership skills. Club staff should support leadership development by asking effective questions, listening actively, and encouraging and modeling successful action.¹

• Ask effective questions.
  • Ask lots of open-ended, relevant and challenging questions to move thinking forward. At the start of a project, provide questions that help youth detail steps to build out an idea. In later stages, help youth think about potential problems they may encounter.
  • Ask for specific youth input on developing and leading activities. Make sure every young person in a group lends their input.
  • Ask questions that help youth identify their strengths. 
• Listen actively.
  • Show that you are listening through eye contact and reframing what was said.
  • Identify and help youth name emotions.
  • Hold back and let youth speak. 
• Encourage and model successful action.
  • Provide timely and thoughtful verbal and written feedback that helps youth further ideas and provides an opportunity to grow.
  • Model positive behavior and acknowledge when youth make choices that support their own growth and/or the growth of others.
  • Encourage youth to take on new leadership roles to leverage or build strengths.

Develop Social-Emotional Skills That Help Build Character

Boys & Girls Clubs support Good Character and Citizenship as one of our three priority outcome areas. Character is the way one behaves when no one is looking. In Boys & Girls Clubs, character exists as six character traits: respect, fairness, trustworthiness, responsibility, caring and citizenship.²

One way to build character traits is by focusing on the practice of social and emotional development (SED). These are skills related to:

• How a young person feels about themselves.
• Their relationships with others.
• Their ability to regulate emotions. 
• Their ability to solve problems with an eye towards their future self.    

You can start to build character using “caught and taught” approaches. Youth “catch” social-emotional development skills when they observe staff modeling appropriate behaviors, and when they interact with peers. Youth can also be “taught” skills to build good character in program areas when the skills are explicitly introduced and practiced through activities and lessons. Here is a formula to help you understand how character develops over time:  

Staff Model Good Character + Youth Practice Skills Regularly = Character Development

How You Can Support Character Development

Positive Youth Development provides direction for how staff interact, engage and model behavior for youth. Staff get to shape the lives of young people every day. As a result, you set the expectation and show youth what respect, fairness, trustworthiness, responsibility, caring and citizenship look like. These character traits come to life when youth practice social and emotional skills like teamwork, conflict management and emotional regulation.³

When Character Development is present:

1. Staff model and youth practice skills that display respect, fairness, trustworthiness, responsibility, caring and citizenship.
2. Youth understand and are successful in getting along well with others. 
3. Youth are better able to control their emotions and solve problems.

When Character Development is absent:

1. Youth do not feel a sense of belonging at the Club.
2. Youth lack skills that foster positive peer relationships.
3. Youth lack self-control and act out in frustration. 

IV. Leadership Development Programs and Resources

BGCA has developmentally appropriate programs and resources for all age groups.

V. How to Use This Resource

Now more than ever, it is important for Club staff to partner with youth to create a safe, supportive and inclusive environment. Within this nurturing environment, young people need transformative opportunities and experiences to practice social-emotional development, specifically empathy for others.

BGCA’s Youth for Unity program provides youth and parents with the groundwork that will help them better understand diversity and combat prejudice, bigotry and discrimination. This curriculum consists of activities and conversation starters that build the capacity of local Clubs to help members appreciate themselves as unique and special individuals; understand our society’s diversity; recognize bias and unfairness; and take personal leadership in confronting bias. 

While the activities in this collection can be completed in any order you choose, we recommend completing the sessions in order. Each session is designed to last approximately 45 to 60 minutes and are geared for youth ages 6-9. With a mixed-age group, you can decide which activity best fits the needs of youth. In some cases, you may need to provide extra support for younger members or encourage older members to assist as needed.

Themes

Youth for Unity activities fall into four central themes.

1. See What’s Special and Unique in Every Individual: These activities will help youth practice self-awareness and recognize their individuality, discover how others perceive them, and explore their unique traits. When young people know who they are, they can begin to see others more clearly and appreciate the similarities and differences among all people. They also begin to develop a positive self-identity based on who they are as unique individuals.
2. Understand Our Society’s Diversity: These activities will help youth recognize and appreciate the uniqueness of others, help them appreciate diversity, and give them a chance to engage in experiences to connect with people unlike themselves. As Club members begin to see the great variety of people in their communities and neighborhoods, they will understand that diversity is what makes the world an interesting and exciting place to live. 
3. Recognize Bias and Unfairness: These activities will help youth trace the roots of bias, and recognize bias in themselves and society. By exploring the faulty beliefs behind biased attitudes and becoming aware of how we use words to hurt others, youth learn to identify and change assumptions that lead to bias and stereotypes. 
4. Take Personal Leadership in Confronting Bias: These activities will help youth understand their leadership potential, encourage them to recognize the qualities of a strong leader, and teach them to confront bias on both a personal level and in society.

Activity Components

Each theme detailed above includes three activities. Each activity includes the following.

• Objective: Specific learning goals for the activities.
• Time Requirements: Time frame to implement the activity (45-60 minutes).
• Materials Needed: All items needed to complete the activity.
• Handouts: Handouts and resources needed.
• Preparation: Steps to prepare for the activity.
• Social-Emotional Skills: Skills developed in the activity.
• Key Terms: Vocabulary reinforced through the activity.
• Links to Resources: Links to additional resources that may be helpful.
• Warm Welcome: A reminder to connect with each young person before the activity.
• Community Builder: A three- to five-minute icebreaker to engage the group, lay the groundwork for the activity, and create an environment for learning and exploration.

The instructional materials for each activity offer detailed guidelines for implementing with youth.

• Activity Instructions: Step-by-step instructions for leading youth through the activity.
• Main Activity: A few comments to introduce the topic and activity.
• Step-by-Step Process to Implement Activity: Detailed steps for facilitating the activity.
• Youth Reflection: A three- to five-minute reflection that helps youth affirm what they’ve learned.
• Recognition: A brief activity to allow youth to recognize each other’s support and help.
• Closing and Transition: A reminder about closing out the activity and guiding youth as they move on to the next area.

Preparing to Implement the Activities

Although the activities are designed to be easy-to-implement, stand-alone experiences that can be integrated into any program area of the Club any day of the year, you will have more success if you take time to prepare for implementing the activities. Here is an overview of items you may need.

• Activity Time: 45-60 minutes for each activity.
• Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes for each activity.
• Space: An average-sized space or room.
• Equipment: Access to a computer and printer, use of a copy machine (in some cases, a color copier).
• Materials: Flipchart paper and markers, as well as standard items such as paper, pens/pencils and art supplies. (See detailed list at the start of each activity.)
• Staff: One staff member or facilitator.

Fostering Group Unity

For a group to work together effectively, members need to believe that the environment is emotionally supportive and safe. By creating Group Agreements (or ground rules), members have a shared vision for their time together – even if it’s for just one activity – and feel emotionally supported by other members. Before implementing any activity, it is important to take time to help youth to create guidelines. Ask group members these questions to guide them in making a Group Agreement:

• How do we want to feel during our time together?
• What behaviors and actions will we agree to so we can all feel this way?
• What will we do if there is a disagreement in the group?

One way to do this is to ask each question individually. For each question, invite each young person to share responses, write responses on sticky notes, and post them on flipchart paper. You can review the responses to each question as a group and decide on the top five responses shared by group members. Once you have identified the top five group responses to each question, post the responses on a single flipchart page in a place where members can see them every time they participate in one of the activities. At the start of each activity, you can briefly review the Group Agreements for returning members and members new to the group.

Implementation Tips 

Discussions about diversity, bias and unfairness can cause strong emotions for young people. Due to the nature of Youth for Unity activities, BGCA strongly recommends following these implementation guidelines and facilitation tips.

Understand the Impact of Historical Trauma: Trauma is a life experience that involves actual or perceived threats to the safety and wellbeing of an individual or someone close to the individual. More than half of all young people have experienced some form of childhood trauma, often referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. Typical ACEs include physical, emotional or sexual abuse; physical or emotional neglect; and such household dysfunctions as divorce, substance abuse, mental illness, violence toward one’s mother, or the incarceration of a relative. 

Historical trauma is the collective, cumulative, multigenerational experience of emotional and psychological injury in communities. Many ACEs can be a direct consequence of historical trauma. Some groups in the United States that are directly affected by historical trauma are African Americans, Indigenous Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos. Additionally, these groups of people continue to be traumatized by systemic racist policies and practices. In other words, experiencing the effects of racism is traumatic for young people. 

Clubs and the positive relationships that youth develop with the adults there can play an important role in helping youth feel safe. Nevertheless, talking about traumatic experiences or similar issues can be re-traumatizing, especially if a conversation happens in an environment that is not emotionally safe and supportive. As a youth development professional, you can help prevent re-traumatization by using trauma-informed practices such as working with youth to establish ground rules for discussion, checking in with participants to see how they’re feeling during activities, and following up with any young person who might need additional support.

Prioritize Physical and Emotional Safety: Before facilitating these activities, review your Club or Youth Center’s safety policies. Be prepared to respond and report, should youth disclose past or current abuse, neglect or mental health issues. For immediate safety and life-threatening mental health concerns, call 911. For concerns of past abuse or ongoing abuse, neglect or endangerment, follow your state’s mandated reporting requirements. In addition, make sure to report safety-related incidents according to your organizational policies, and use BGCA’s Safety Helpline (866-607-SAFE) for additional support.

For more information about creating physically and emotionally safe program environments, visit the Safety page on BGCA.net, where you’ll find the latest resources on:

• Safety Policies and Actions
• Mandated Reporting
• Disclosures of Abuse 

If you have questions about using this resource in your Club, or general safety questions, please reach out to the BGCA Safety Team at ChildSafety@BGCA.org.

Make Referrals When Needed: These activities provide an opportunity for youth to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Some conversations about diversity, bias and unfairness can be triggering for youth. Understanding your role and professional ability as a youth development professional is critical. 

During an activity, youth may become emotional, share personal stories about past trauma, or open up about current negative or potentially harmful experiences. It is important to keep in mind that you are not expected to take on the role of therapist or counselor, nor would it be ethical for you to do so. You should, however, be able to recognize when youth are disclosing abuse or another traumatic event and report and refer as appropriate. If you have a social worker or therapist on staff, ask them to reach out via the Club’s engagement channels to support youth. If you do not have a therapist on staff, consider familiarizing yourself with the local agencies in your area. The following resources may be helpful.

• Visit 211.org for more information on local resources.
• For non-life-threatening mental health concerns, consider using the free Crisis Text Line by texting CLUB to 741741 to text with a trained crisis counselor 24/7.
• Visit ProgramBasicsPlanner.com/back to schedule a topical Club consultation with a BGCA staff member.

Create a Safe Space: Whether you are using a virtual, in-person or hybrid program model, it is important that all youth feel safe and welcomed. You can create inviting spaces by taking the following steps. 

• Tell youth it is a safe program space: Before each session, try saying something like, “This is a safe space where you are safe to feel your feelings, talk about your experience and ask for help. All feelings are normal and healthy, and there is no wrong way to feel. You are always welcome to pass if you don’t feel comfortable sharing something in front of the group. I am here to help and support you if you want to talk about anything during or after program time. Does anyone have any questions before we start?”
• Be an active listener throughout the activity: Follow up with any youth afterward who appear to need additional support. Step aside with them to discuss how they are feeling and determine how you can help.
• If possible, use a co-facilitator: Having a second Club staff member present to respond to youth, clarify directions, and provide support during activities can be helpful and enhance safety. 
• Use all the elements of a high-quality session: You may need to adapt or shorten some components of a session or activity, but make sure to facilitate a Community Builder. Also give youth time to reflect on their experiences and recognize each other.
• Establish and revisit your Group Agreements. Remind youth how they want to be treated as they interact with others. 
• Use Emotional Check-Ins as a way for youth to pause and reflect on how they are feeling. 
• Give youth opportunities to “pass”: Remind youth that they can always pass if they are feeling uncomfortable or unwilling to share during an activity. 
• Immediately address any and all bias or racist behavior: In the course of Youth for Unity activities, participants examine and discuss real-life examples of bias and stereotypes. Remind youth that, while it’s not always easy to deal with such sensitive topics, you – and their peers – are counting on each of them to not make intentionally hurtful comments.

Focus on Youth Engagement: Regardless of the program model you are using, enhance your engagement with youth by trying these tips. 

• Listen actively throughout the activity and focus on relationship building. It’s OK if you spend as much time connecting as you do completing the activity. 
• Aim for groups of no larger than 10 youth to allow for meaningful conversations. 
• Encourage youth to respond in non-verbal ways. They can use emojis or reaction buttons on digital platforms or give visual signals, like a thumbs up to indicate they agree or that they are having fun. 
• Use various engagement methods such as polls, small-group conversations, open-ended questions, and inviting participants to act as youth leaders and co-facilitators. 

Celebrate and Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts: Programs and activities should always be culturally responsive, inclusive, adaptive and interesting. They should reflect the youth who are participating. Activities should provide opportunities for youth to explore the various aspects of their identities. A young person’s daily and life experiences, and how they see themselves and others, may be heavily influenced by several factors, including their race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic circumstances, language or being LGBTQ. Activities should also address and critique stereotypes and biases regarding identity and culture.

As you implement Youth for Unity, look for ways to: 

• Elevate youth voice. Allowing young people to shape and influence programs makes them more relevant and helps youth better understand their own experiences. 
• Incorporate cultural traditions important to the groups of young people your Club or Youth Center serves. 
• Involve families, caregivers, and community members whose varied backgrounds and experiences can support the Club’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. 
• Use trauma-informed practices to avoid racial re-traumatization. 
• Promote awareness of inequities – racial or otherwise, at any level of the Club – as a first step toward addressing such issues.

For more information on strategies to implement Youth for Unity programming, please refer to the Youth for Unity Planning Guide on BGCA.net.

¹ Ask, Listen and Encourage (ALE) is a strategy used by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality (http://www.cypq.org/sites/cypq.org/files/Ask-Listen-EncourageGuidebookSample.pdf).

² Articulated in the Aspen Declaration, character values were identified by a nonpartisan, nonsectarian group of youth development experts in 1992 as “core ethical values that transcend cultural, religious and socioeconomic differences.” https://charactercounts.org/program-overview/six-pillars/

³ For support in integrating character development opportunities, please refer to the Program Basics Primer as well as the SED Across the Club Day resource guide.

* Note - resource available in September 2018.