October it´s over ... 💛

This month has been full of experiences that really shook things up and made me put some old skills back into action. Working with difficult teenagers isn’t easy, and October made sure to remind me of that.

Right from the start, the group was pure chaos: loud, restless, and full of energy. Talking about violence in those conditions was tough, and I had to come up with all kinds of strategies to keep their attention. Despite the mess, we managed to get through the activities, and meeting our goals felt like a huge win.

One thing that really stood out to me was that, even though they already knew a lot about violence and how to recognize it, the topic didn’t really faze them. They’re fully aware of what it is, but they live with it daily, both experiencing and committing acts of violence without feeling much sensitivity toward it. Knowing that the four sessions I designed would be facilitated by my fellow YAV volunteers and me, I chose to lead the first one. I wanted to get a sense of how the group reacted so my colleagues could adjust their methods and better engage with the teens.

That first session was tough. The topics, like identifying violence, weren’t new to them, so they got distracted easily and joked around a lot. But then we did an activity where they wrote down situations of violence they had experienced or witnessed, and that changed things a bit. It became clear that violence is a constant part of their surroundings, whether at school, on the streets, or at home. Even though it wasn’t entirely surprising, it was still striking.

In the end, the experience was incredibly valuable. It helped me understand how to work with them better and also gave my fellow volunteers the insight they needed to adjust their sessions and really capture the group’s attention. The later sessions flowed more smoothly, and when we covered topics that genuinely interested them, like toxic relationships, they became much more engaged, even if they still made jokes.

Overall, it was a challenging but rewarding experience. It taught me to be more flexible and creative, and it left me with the satisfaction of knowing that, even if just a little, I had managed to connect with these teens and their realities.