The Art of Hanging Out: How to engage young people in a play environment
Tuesday, January 23, 10AM - 11:30AM
Hosted by YOUTH ONE - 1303 13 St N, Lethbridge
While play often seems like an easy thing to do, what happens when the spaces, activities or environments we make for play don't get young people playing? This is where play gets difficult. The question we are forced to ask is how do we engage the young people we encounter in the play we have created? The Lethbridge Plays mini summit hosted at Youth One, The Art of Hanging Out, will seek to answer that question through a mixture of knowledge sharing, from our near decade of creating and engaging youth in environments of play, as well as hands-on play experiences in our center. A little bit about Youth One...
Youth One is taking a growing need and addressing it with a very intentional approach. We believe every youth has so much potential, but many grow up without a dedicated community to help them fully realize it and live it out. That's why Youth One provides mentorship based, after school programs and support services for youth ages 11-18. Programs are designed to give students a community of belonging, support and guidance during their most formative years.
In 2014, Youth One launched because of the need for more affordable, quality driven, mentorship based programs supporting youth after school. In North America, 1 in every 3 youth will grow up without a mentor or caring adult in their life. This means many youth are struggling through life without necessary guidance and support during their most formative years. Research tells us when a youth has even ONE positive role model/mentor in their life it dramatically reduces many risk factors such as drug and alcohol abuse, crime rates, mental health issues, drop-out rates etc. For this reason, we are determined to make sure no youth has to figure out life alone. We firmly believe that when youth are supported to live out their full potential, the future health of our community increases.
Since launching, Youth One has supported thousands of individual youth through their middle school and high school years. This has been done through after-school drop in programs, support groups, leadership training, food services, life skill development and more.
