New LIT program

[xtag1313x]

I posted this on ACA message boards too:

Me and my friend are planning a new LIT program for our boys and girls club day camp. We are pitching our idea to the camp director next week. We're looking for some feedback on what we've planned so far. Basically we're gearing this towards 12-14 year olds. Our program would be 2 weeks long and would include a lot of teambuilding activites. We also plan on using key words such as leadership, cooperation,unity etc. With these words we would assign each word a day and spend the day focusing our activites on that word and having the kids think about it. We are looking for different types of team building activites to do. Any feedback or ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks
Amanda

[collissimon]

I don't work with your age group, so apologies if I get the wrong end of the stick!

You're going to have themed days, round a word like co-operation, or unity? That sounds pretty cool!

Will you be playing games, or going to regular activities (e.g. arts and crafts etc.)? Would you have the run of the whole camp, or would it be one of those 'in a field with whatever you can bring with you' activities? Are these themed days going to be run back to back, or once or twice a session? Sorry it's loads of questions, but it seems like a really good idea!

How about a Communication Day? You could do loads of little games regarding trying to get your meaning across. One thing I did for Disability training a couple of years ago, was in pairs, one sits down and is blindfolded. The second person stands up, and feeds the blindfolded person without telling them what they are eating. What they are eating can be really simple: we had jelly (do you guys call it jello?), bread, whipped cream and hundreds and thousands all mixed together. The point of the activity was to get us to talk when we were feeding the kids we were working with. You could adapt it to the need to communicate with one another, because it can be the nicest food in the world, but if you don't know what it is, it's revolting!

[Flukie]

One thing I think that is really important with any leadership program is the opportunity to actually get involved. Even if your LITs get a chance to just do some basic observation and maybe lead a few drop-in activities that units can swing by and do, I think that they really learn better by doing.

My CITs are 16 or 17 and my Interns are all 17 - and they have a very difficult time if it is too much talking and not enough doing. That is the one thing I learned last summer - even on activities that involved group discussion, they wanted a more hands-on component. I doubt that younger would be better at discussion - so you'll want to watch that part of it as well.

Do you have an older leadership program at all? How indepth do you want to go? We have Program Aide training for girls that are 7th grade or older in Girl Scouts - it's a great way for them to begin learning leadership skills. Our PAs learn to lead songs and games, how to teach basic outdoor skills, and basically have a chance to work with younger kids in pre-organized programs. It is very hands-on and the girls enjoy doing it. They don't enjoy the paper side of the training nearly as much (and all leadership programs seem to have some of that!).

Teambuilding activities are great to form bonds between your group - but if you want a leadership aspect coming into play, you need to be very careful what games you choose. Low ropes elements have more leadership built in (in my opinion!) than a lot of the general teambuilding activities do. Likewise, you are going to have the kids that aren't afraid to speak up and those that are - so you really want to watch that and make sure you have other leadership options too for those kids.

[xtag1313x]

Thanks for all the input...

Let me clarify a little bit, The way the camp runs is that basically the kids are doing a lot of the same things they would do in the afterschool program during the school year except they do it all day. The whole camp is inside. They have swimming, arts and crafts, gym time, and computer time. The oldest campers are 12 with a few 13 year olds. Depending on the kid they can become CIT/JC at 14 or 15. There is no real training program for these kids, they basically do the crap jobs like cleaning. This is the reason we want to create a new program. This program would be optional. We are trying to secure some land at a local park so that we would be able to take these kids there everyday. We don't plan on doing a lot of talking everyday. Ideally we would like to do a little talking in the morning about one of the words and then have the days activites relate to that word.
We have a lot of low ropes ideas that we would like to do. We don't want it to be all work for these kids. We would also be going to the main camp several times during the session so that they could get some hands on experience.

[campCardinal]

Our LIT program is centered around service leadership. We have 4 hours of camp service throughout the week- this includes building fire rings and cleaning areas of camp and making trails. Also, we have our servant leaders lead a one morning program for our youngest campers. The staff is around the whole time to help out and everything... but it gives them a chance to create games and lead programs to see if being a camp counselor is the next step for them.

LIT's don't want to sit through any type of lecture. That is what we have learned. They prefer hands on activities. And, as leaders of campers they like to have special privledges. We make it special for them by having them more hang out time with their friends at night... instead of having an early lights out.

[rockinsmiles]

Low ropes/team course are great for leadership and team work I think. And there are a ton of teamwork games out there. Willie Wonka is probably the most populare at my camp. The simpiliest game I've done was to get campers to sit in a circle. Then but a bucket in the middle of the circle. The campers then had to figure out a way to get the bucket around the circle without using their arms and without the bucket touching the floor. If either one happened they had to start over.
I can think of at least 5 more games if you would like some.

[collissimon]

That sounds really interesting xtag!

I think maybe they still need to do some of the... less rewarding jobs, because there will be elements of counselling that is less rewarding as well!

We had a very successful bigger brother system last year. The youngest boys were linked with some of the older ones (12/13) and they met up during horseshoe at least twice a week for the session. The littler kids got a kick out of it, because they had a new friend a bit older, and the older kids got a kick out of the responsibility.

[drink the wild air]

I would pick up the book Learning Leadership: How to Develop Outstanding Teen Leadership Training Programs at Camp by Michael Brandwein. It helps a lot with planning programs and also has some worksheets and activities centered around the specific words/leader qualities that you were talking about. I think it would fit together well. I ran our LIT/CIT program for a few years at camp and the book definitely helped. Feel free to PM with any other specific questions you have about running a leadership program. I loved it, it was definitely my favorite job at camp. :D