I Need Your Help Friends

[RBG3]

So I made a community discussion group, whereby me and my colleague rent a room for about 4 hours, and invite youth (I'm 19..colleague 14) to discuss ANY AND ALL issues on their mind. We also offer topics, and provide DVD's and books to go along with our discussions.

The problem is we have a VERY LOW amount of supporters..attendants..does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get the youth willing to come out? They know about it, and it's saturday 12-5 (easy time..) they just aren't interested, any ideas how I can attract the youth for knowledge on their people? (As well as other topics surrounding life and living)

Much appreciated.

[Jewels0479]

That's tough to answer without knowing who you are trying to reach and what resources you have at your disposal. A general suggestion would be to offer food or some other incentive to attract those among you who are not excited enough by the idea of simply sharing ideas with other people their age. Maybe you could have a giveaway where everyone who attends the meetings for a certain number of Saturdays in a row is entered to win a prize. The prize would have to be something good to spark their interest and then you'd have to come up with some good topics in order to keep them coming back. It takes a lot of effort, dedication and creativity to make a project like the one you are attempting successful but keep at it and you'll get it off of the ground and it will take on a life of it's own.

[JamieC]

Originally Posted by RBG3

So I made a community discussion group, whereby me and my colleague rent a room for about 4 hours, and invite youth (I'm 19..colleague 14) to discuss ANY AND ALL issues on their mind. We also offer topics, and provide DVD's and books to go along with our discussions.

The problem is we have a VERY LOW amount of supporters..attendants..does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get the youth willing to come out? They know about it, and it's saturday 12-5 (easy time..) they just aren't interested, any ideas how I can attract the youth for knowledge on their people? (As well as other topics surrounding life and living)

Much appreciated.

One way of getting the word out is by posting flyers in your area or creating a website. It's always good to hear that young adults such as yourself and your friend are trying to keep it positive for our youths today. Should you need anymore input or questions that's what the AC family is here for. I have nothing but respect for what you're trying to do.

[Proudbrothaman]

This is a great idea RBG but what I've learned by in my past three years of coaching youth football and helping with after school programs is saturdays are a tough sell for youth, especially the teen age years. You have to make it fun, because kids do things by word of mouth. If you can get them to start talking amongst each other about your program that that would be a huge step in the right direction.Football sells itself so when I'm coaching the kids will come but the programs I'm involved in started out with weak numbers but we made it so that the kids were learning without even knowing they were learning. Also we only go for a couple hours, unless its X-Box or playstation taking up 4 hours is a lot of time for the youth.

[Edward Williams]

Perform video interviews on the street where you ask people about problem solving. If you're not setup to help people solve problems most people don't want no part of it anyway. We all have problems and most often we allow those problems to become more important than what we're seeing and the result is we can't see our way out of the situation we're in.

What is the worst problem in the neighborhood where you are? You could offer financial advice. A round of discussions on relationships. Building a better community. People are interested in all kinds of things. You just need to find out what people are interested in, what problems people have that they need help with and attack it from that angle.

I'd start with video interviews on the street asking people what problem they are facing right now that they need help with. Offer the person assistance right then, let them know about your community discussion group and how you're setup to address issues like the ones they are having right now and also how the things they learn in the group can help them for the rest of their lives...and give examples.

[umbrarchist]

What knowledge are you providing?

What would young kids be interested in? What about cars?

Talk about how cars work and get the idea across that except for fancier electronics they work the same way they did 50 years ago. So while you are at it you can slip in some financial info about what a scam cars are. According to the book The Millionaire Next Door 36% of millionaires buy used cars.

This is how I learned about how engines work.



Visible V8 Model Engine Kit

It look almost exactly the same as it did when I built one over 40 years ago. It just has a hand crank while the one I built had an electric motor. Things are getting cheap.

um

[afrocentric]

these are some great ideas. i wish i knew one right off hand. maybe i will later on but in the meantime these should help.

[umbrarchist]

Here are MP3 audio books.

On this page is The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

You have to register to download.

Books for comparison are:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu via Thomas Cleary

Mastering The Art of War via Thomas Cleary

um

[RBG3]

Originally Posted by Jewels0479

That's tough to answer without knowing who you are trying to reach and what resources you have at your disposal. A general suggestion would be to offer food or some other incentive to attract those among you who are not excited enough by the idea of simply sharing ideas with other people their age. Maybe you could have a giveaway where everyone who attends the meetings for a certain number of Saturdays in a row is entered to win a prize. The prize would have to be something good to spark their interest and then you'd have to come up with some good topics in order to keep them coming back. It takes a lot of effort, dedication and creativity to make a project like the one you are attempting successful but keep at it and you'll get it off of the ground and it will take on a life of it's own.

Oh sorry, I'm trying to reach youth, any between 14-19/20 of all races, but with a black focus. I currently have a room with a television and am expanding to a bigger one in a community centre in september.

I didn't quite have the money for food incentive, but I have 2 jobs now and I'll be using some money for this reason, I'm also trying to get sponsored by the local mall and community centre for maybe some gift certificates to get them food and drink weekly.

I'll try to work out the prize thing as well, thanks for the help, I understand I didn't give enough information, my apologies. Thank you for the faith as well.

[RBG3]

Originally Posted by JamieC

One way of getting the word out is by posting flyers in your area or creating a website. It's always good to hear that young adults such as yourself and your friend are trying to keep it positive for our youths today. Should you need anymore input or questions that's what the AC family is here for. I have nothing but respect for what you're trying to do.

Thank you, it's been really tuff, we've held about 5 meetings and got no attendants haha, not even our friends showing up..so now I'm working in the community centre again to meet more youth and try to ease them into my program..it's really needed, crime rates haven't gone down at all, and younger and younger youth in my area are getting into trouble with the law..