Text chain

At a group gathering have everyone text three people telling them about the event going on or an event coming up.

• They can text absent group members, friends, eligible family.
  
• Don't get overly organized and try to make sure some one kid doesn't get 5 texts. That's just fine. Makes them feel wanted.
  
• Do this infrequently, maybe once a quarter.
  

Be a Moral Guarantor for your youth

Like it or not your youth will look to you for moral guidance. You cannot, like the celebrities, try to pretend that your actions and life are not anyone's business and you have no intention of being a “role model.” Not only are you (and they) role models, you have signed on for that job! So the youth around you are watching, mostly unconsciously, your every move trying to learn what it means to be a “Christian adult.” (remember the anti-smoking ads?) So, what are you teaching them?

• Periodically we need to stop and look at our actions and interactions to make sure we are teaching them what we intend to teach them
• If we see behaviors in the youth that bother us, we need to first look at ourselves to make sure we haven't taught them that.
• When teaching a lesson or preaching, we need to see how much if applies to our own lives.
• If the concern is a difficult one (“I need to be less sarcastic”) at least admit that it is a problem that you are trying to overcome. This, in itself is an important lesson for them to learn.
• Never make excuses when you slip up.
• As I have said in other posts, we may have to adhere to a code that we do not consider necessary – specially for an adult, but if it is something we don't want to our youth to emulate, we may have adhere to it – for their sake.

Child raising: The child is the exception – for good or ill

If a bad behavior is condoned in other children by their parents (“isn't that cute”) but not for their own children

• the child is likely to view the rule as unfair and adopt an everyone-for-themselves attitude.
• They also will tend to hide things from their parents

On the other had if bad behavior is viewed by the parent as ok for the youth but not for other children

• the child is likely to view themselves as exceptions to all rules.
• As I've commented elsewhere, if a youth worker is a parent of a child in the group, they have to be very careful not to apply rules more strictly on their child or to make their child exceptions. This is incredibly destructive to all parties.
• One reason I've always been hesitant to turn to a parent when a youth is “out of control” is that I can never be sure what the parental response will be: take the kind home and beat him/her, to blame me or someone else, or both, and, always, pull the youth out of the program.

Being an ADD/ADHD youth worker #17: Creative Thinking

Make good and unapologetic use of your creative thinking – your ability to put together seemingly unrelated things (this isn't just my idea, this is in the literature)

• This is sometimes seriously out-of-the-box thinking.
• Getting people to listen to us is often a problem.
• Find people that deal will with someone who is ADD – listen to their 'hare-brained” ideas.
• Make sure that new ideas and perspectives are communicated clearly and in a way that will make it acceptable to more traditional thinking people.
• and be patient. It may take them awhile to catch up with you