Life's Journey To Perfection: Everything You Need to Help the Youth Plan and Carry out Activities for The Year

Everything You Need to Help the Youth Plan and Carry out Activities for The Year:

Usually, January activities are planning activities!! There are some amazing resources on lds.org!! Here is a link to Strengthening Youth Through Activities. It gives the details about conducting activities, how long activities usually last and why we hold youth activities.

Here are some tips, ideas and printables to help the youth plan out their activities for the year:

Class Planning Activity:

Begin, this activity by dividing the Young Women (or whatever class this activity is for) into groups, so there are 3-4 girls in each group. Give each group the Class Planning Printable. (See free download button below)

Invite them to write down what activities they would like to do under the 3 categories.

When everyone is done writing down their ideas, gather back together as a class. Go through each category, sharing the ideas that each group wrote down. I usually had the master list and we would narrow down the ideas, to ideas that everyone wanted to do.

You can then, later gather your class presidency together and invite them to decide which activities to do in which month. Then each month as you hold your class presidency meetings, you will finalize those plans to carry out the activity. These activities can be planned for either class activities or for Personal Progress.

Side note, you could call this activity "Pizza and Planning". We just picked up some inexpensive pizzas, ate and then did out planning.

Combined Youth Planning Activity:

Here's an idea we did in our ward. Our bishopric is usually over this activity. They introduce the new theme for the year and then we split up into classes/quorum. Each class/quorum is given a month to be in charge of a combined youth activity. That is six activities that will be planned. Here is a sample:

As you can see, January the bishopric is over the planning activity. We have Standards night usually in April- May and as leaders we usually take that activity. In October and December the Ward Party is our combined Activity. There is usually a Face to Face event, sometime during the year. In 2019 it is in November, so that is the combined activity for that month. Whatever month our Youth Conference falls in is the combined activity for that month. Which leaves, the six months.

After each class/quorum chooses and plans their activity for the month they were given, then gather back together. Each group has one of the youth come up and share what their activity will be for the month they were assigned. This way there are no duplicates and everyone can put the activity ideas on their calendars.

They usually end the activity with a friendly game of crab soccer or dodge ball.

Combined Young Women Activities Planning:

You could do the same as above, assign each young women class two activities to be in charge of planning. Another idea that our ward did was each adviser was given a month to plan a combined activity for. Then the Presidency did New Beginnings, YW in Excellence and the Christmas Party. I like the girls being more involved though. So another great idea, would be for the adviser to plan it with the class presidency, or be paired up with a couple Young Women.

Personal Progress:

2019 is the last year for the Personal Progress Program. Here is a schedule that will help the young women earn their Young Women Recognition award by the end of the year. (See free download link below) Though I think they can earn it much quicker than this, by doing more than one value experience in a week. Another option is to work on and complete a value a month. Here are some activity ideas and packets to accomplish this: Young Women Personal Progress Activity all about Faith: Faith and Floats; YW Personal Progress Divine Nature Activity: "Do-nut" forget your Divine Nature; YW Individual Worth Personal Progress Activity: Self Esteem Retreat

Youth Opening Exercises Conducting Sheets:

"Mutual usually lasts about an hour or an hour and a half. It begins with opening exercises, conducted by a member of the Laurel class presidency or one of the bishop’s priests quorum assistants. The youth sing a hymn, have an opening prayer, and may share testimonies and musical numbers or other talents." - Strengthening Youth Through Activities

Click the Free download button below, for the Opening Exercise Conducting Sheets.