Youth Center

Adaptation: These sports possibilities may depend on the availability of equipment.

Basketball

Flag Football

Softball

Baseball

Field Hockey

Bowling

Kickball

Martial Arts

Badminton

Whiffleball

Dodgeball

Water Polo

Water Volleyball

Soccer

Volleyball

Instructions: With supervision, youth can get in the beneficial habit of completing their homework right after school.

Instructions: teens can help tutor the afterschool kids on their homework.

Instructions: With a qualified adult leader, youth can actively participate in discussing age appropriate issues, such as positive behavior, respect, safety, and school issues. Also learn about current events.

Instructions: Activity Director can teach youth practical life skills such as conflict resolution, communication, social skills, and more.

Adaptation: computer room.

Instructions: participants can play online computer and educational games, such as trivia or word problems. Games for topics such as health, financial, and career education can also be found online.

Supplies: necessary supplies given for chosen online science experiment.

Instructions: Many simple science experiments for youth can be found online. Activity Director can lead experiment.

Instructions: Participants listen to guest speakers such as firemen, police officers, and paramedics speak about the importance of good behavior, safety, and turning to the right people for help.

Supplies: TV and movie DVDs.

Instructions: youth watch educational and inspirational short movies. This can take place during snack time.

Instructions: There are several websites that provide information on how to teach youth entrepreneurial skills, or provide a program themselves.

Adaptation: computer room.

Instructions: Activity Director can lead a career exploration class, with help from a youth career exploration website with online activities.

Supplies: paintbrushes, watercolors, and watercolor paper.

Instructions: youth can create a watercolor painting of an image or abstract art. They can take their painting home or have it hung up and displayed on the wall.

Supplies: colored pencils, paper, string, beads, popsicle sticks, etc.

Instructions: youth can work on arts and crafts, particularly for holidays, to create items that can be taken home, such as drawings, picture frames, and collages.

Supplies: dance instruction video.

Instructions: have participants watch a dance video, and practice dance moves.

Adaptation: Large kitchen with stoves and ovens.

Instructions: Activity Director can teach cooking different kinds of dishes, using simple online recipes. Kids should especially enjoy making cookies and desserts.

Instructions: Allow youth to learn leadership skills and responsibility, as well as build character.

Supplies: banners, balloons, ribbons, signs, decorations.

Instructions: Have a winter holiday, Halloween, Independence Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthdays of the month events.

Supplies: board games, video games, and puzzles.

Instructions: Have contests or tournaments solving puzzles, and playing board games, and video games, for prizes.

Instructions: Leave clues in different places for different teams, to discover and decode, in a race to win a prize.

Supplies: tossing games (ex. a bean bag toss, a horseshoe toss, a ring toss, prizes), cakes for a cakewalk, a bounce house, music, food and drinks, raffle tickets.

Adaptation: hold in large gym, and/or outside. Plan for different game areas, food service, and parking.

Instructions: Have a large community event, with games of chance, and you can invite the local police and fire departments to bring over their police car and firetruck for the kids to check out. Top it off with a raffle.

Instructions: Plan, organize, and participate in service projects for the community, such as park clean-ups, food drives, creating cards for ill children or elderly, or visits to a local senior home for joint programs (such as playing table games with the seniors).

Instructions: Plan, organize, and hold fundraisers to raise money for the youth center, or charities decided on by the group. Examples can be a bake sale, car wash, auction (sell donated items), or youth sporting event (sell tickets, snacks, and drinks).

Adaptation: a bus or van for transport.

Instructions: take youth to new places for fun and education.

Ice Skating: fun way to try a new and different activity.

Waterpark: a good way to cool off in the summer.

Museums: kids can learn about art and history.

Colleges: get youth started on the right track by visiting a college, and envisioning a bright future for themselves.

Canoeing or Rafting: teach youth canoeing or rafting skills.

Hiking: have an adventure, and good exercise, too.

Movies: most kids especially enjoy large-screen IMAX movies.

Instructions: Have a contest, with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, as well as prizes for participating. Pictures of the winners, and their work, can be posted on the wall.

Possible contests:

Drawing

Painting

Karaoke

Dance

Photography

Adaptation: designated room for teen use, computers and TV.

Instructions: Teens can hang out in a lounge area, and are provided with computers, magazines, newspaper, television, board games, cards, and snacks and drinks.

Supplies: snacks and drinks.

Adaptation: large room with large TV, plenty of seating.

Instructions: teens can watch a movie voted on by peers, with popcorn and drinks provided.

Supplies: movie DVDs, video games, pizza, and soft drinks.

Adaptation: use gym or large room and teen lounge, music, strobe lights.

Instructions: on select Friday nights, teens can celebrate the weekend with a party in the gym and teen lounge, including music, movies, video games, pizza, and soft drinks.