Tips for Session Planning:

• Try not to be overstructured with the whole session packed with planned acitivities. It is important to allow space for kids to interact freely among themselves. It is also important to delve deeper into discussions that may occur almost spontaneously as part of the activites. Youth, in particular from troubled families do not have opportunities to talk about their lives with others, which is extremely important for their healthy development.
• The seating arrangement for sessions requiring group discussion and planning should be in a cirlce such that each person has equal eye contact with every other person including the facilitator. This arrangement is egalitarian in nature imparting a sense of equal power to all regardless of age, race and community.In this arrangement, the participants can also relax and interact well with each other.
• Always start a session with the activists with activities that break the ice and bring about an air of informality (for activities, see the activities section) and end the session with session assessment. 10 minutes at the end of the session is usually enough for session assessment. Let the kids write down what they found "good" and what could be done "even better" as part of the session.
• Kids will find it difficult to concentrate if the same activity is going on for more than 20 minutes.You can break the monotony with visual aids, exercises, jokes or breaks from time to time during the session.
• Computers can be very time consuming. Plan wisely how they are going to be used. It is difficult to have youth work on the computers for less than 20 minutes.
• Allow for youth leadership and participation. There are many opportunities within the session itself that can be used for this. For instance, invite kids to write on the white board, lead discussions, etc. Working in small groups (3-5 kids)or asking each kid to write ideas/opinions on paper also opens more opportunities for everyone to express him/herself.
• Have a concrete outcome planned for each session. That will provide a sense of accomplishment and help everyone in visualizing how things are evolving. One idea would be to organize everything that was produced in a session-- drawings, thoughts, maps, etc. into large sheets of paper that could be then hung on the walls.