Have the youth organize and facilitate fundraisers like bake sales, raffle tickets, cookie sales, car washes, a play or variety show.
Tap into the energy and ideas of the youth in the community. Try and get adolescents involved in the project to provide young role models for the children who will play on the playground, and to develop a deeper awareness of the project with other kids in the community.
Organizations have lots of resources that could assist with project planning - meeting space, copiers, staff who understand children's needs, children's activity materials.
Youth can develop or refine social skills like leadership, group facilitation, public speaking and conflict management. Participation in project planning can even be integrated into many standard school subjects like social studies, physical education, math and arts. Empowering young people throughout the community-build process helps build self-esteem, confidence and pride in themselves and in their community. Some of the ideas below will be more appropriate for particular age groups, but there are ways youth of all ages can participate in your project. Remember, when it comes to play, youth are the experts - so utilize their experience!
Youth on Committees
Young people can serve as youth liaisons for each of your planning committees. Youth co-chairs can even be selected to lead their young peers in participating in the planning process.
Young people can accomplish many of the same goals and tasks as the adult committee. Here are a few examples:
Recruitment
Flyer the neighborhood
Recruit their parents to serve as volunteers
Man the registration table on Build Day
Fundraising
Sell raffle tickets/fundraising items
Hold a classroom penny drive
Help write thank-you notes to donors
Public Relations
Prepare a skit, song or dance for the ribbon-cutting ceremony
Make a banner thanking everyone involved
Elect a youth spokesperson for the project
Children's Activities
Help develop Build Day activities for younger children
Construction
Create murals and other art projects for the play environment
Food
Help serve food on Build Day
Safety
Be part of the safety patrol on Build Day
Serve water to volunteers to prevent dehydration
Form a Youth Council
Forming a youth council is another way to get kids involved in the planning process. Rather than divide them amongst committees, young people can be grouped together in their own committee. The youth council can be charged with various tasks from their partner adult committees. Empower the youth council with a small budget through which they can manage peripheral projects. Perhaps they can hold a contest or "grant process" by which youth submit plans and ideas for play environment projects. It becomes the youth council's job to evaluate ideas and award mini-grants.
Children's Garden
Gardens are great projects for kids to plan, design and maintain in your play environment. Work with youth to decide what kind of garden they're most excited about: an herb garden, a pizza garden, a sensory garden, a vegetable garden, etc. Their role will be to help plan and design the garden, but youth should also play critical roles in maintaining the garden once it's built. They can be responsible for watering and weeding and marketing produce.
Playspace Rules
Children actually enjoy the exercise of creating rules for their new playspace. Solicit their advice, and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results! There are many ways of involving them in rule setting. For younger children, have them draw a picture of their favorite part of the playground, and work with them on creating a specific rule for that piece. Invite classes to submit lists of rules. Leave it up to your youth council to establish and communicate final playspace rules.
Playspace Patrol
Involve youth in keeping your playspace safe by creating a youth-led Playspace Patrol. Train youth on rules and safe play practices. They can also be trained to look for basic maintenance issues like safety surfacing levels, broken equipment, trash or debris in the play area, etc. Assign individual youth or classes to patrol for a limited time period, like a day or a week. Hold them accountable!
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