We’ve just made a second resource available for free download and given it a makeover too!

Know Your Group Cards is a card based discussion activity designed to help groups discover the skills and qualities of members. The activity works best for groups that either already know each other or who have recently formed but members have some knowledge of each other.

The activity involves a self assessment sheet that allows each participants to rate their own various skills. There are then two sets of cards and the first set is placed in the middle of the group. Each member takes it in turns to take a card and then without anyone else seeing whats on the card they give ito to the person they think most appropriate.

After all the cards have been dished out the process is repeated with the second set of cards. When all cards have been allocated participants can look at the cards they have been issued and then if they wish they can choose to pass some on if they think they’re more appropriate for other members.

The activity is designed to provoke discussion and needs good facilitation, especially to be able to deal with situations where some members receive no cards (usually an indication this person isn’t well known rather than they have no skills!). The main purpose of the cards is to help groups consider what skills members have so that when they’re allocating tasks during activities and projects they put the skills available to the most effective use.

Know Your Group Cards can be downloaded for free from the Resources section.

Please note that to receive the free download you need to ‘checkout’ - you will then be sent a download link (please make sure you’re logged in to the resources section when you click the link).

Practical Ideas for Youth Participation was an event organised by YoMo in October 2007. If you would like help to organise your own events, a quote for bespoke training or to discuss potential partnership work please contact us at info@yomo.co.uk

At our meeting this weekend one of the things we looked at was our working practices as an organisation - including how we’re structured and how our members (including young people) can participate in our ‘governance’.

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A lot of organisations contact us wanting advice or training to involve young people in meetings or adult committees. Generally this leads to an indepth conversation about how they should be looking to do a fair bit of preparatory work to get to this stage - however the reality is that many organisations still ‘involve young people’ by plonking a couple on a committee and hoping they’ll contribute ever so now and again (or at least not make too much mess!).

Cynicism aside even organisations with a genuine desire for young people to participate sometimes find themselves in the position of holding an ‘adult’ meeting with some young people who haven’t been well prepared. So what can you do when in this situation to make the meeting process more relevant Continue Reading »