Youth will participate in hands-on sessions that combine fun activities, creative challenges, group conversations and practical tools designed to help build confidence, strengthen relationships, and develop skills to handle everyday challenges. Participants will also create a library of take-home activities from each session to support their learning and growth.
Dates: Thursday, September 24; Thursday, October 20; Thursday, November 26; and Thursday, December 10
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Location: MFRC Youth Centre
Register: online, in-person or call 780-973-4011 ext. 528-6300
Open to: Youth ages 11 – 17 years from CAF and Veteran families, and Families of the Fallen
September 24
Session 1: Welcome & Getting to Know Each Other
Start the series by getting to know the group through an interactive icebreaker called Fact or Fiction. Participants will share fun facts about themselves, and the group will guess who each one belongs to. Youth will explore their identity, individuality, and self confidence in a welcoming space before creating a personalized identity collage to celebrate what makes them unique!
October 29
Session 2: Understanding Yourself
In this session youth will participate in Emotion Freeze, a fun activity that will have participants move around the space and freeze in a pose that shows a prompted emotion when the music stops. Youth will explore emotions, thoughts, and feelings and learn how they are connected. Using what they have learned, youth will then take part in an emotion brainstorming challenge before creating their own personalized candle for a DIY sensory kit.
November 26
Session 3: Communication Beyond Words
Youth will kick things off for this session with a game of Emotional Charades where they will act out different emotions and the group guesses the expression. Through discussion and activities, participants will explore body language, facial expressions and other nonverbal cues to better understand how emotions and behaviours can impact those around us. Youth will then create a personalized feelings wheel to help better identify, understand and communicate emotions.
December 10
Session 4: Active Listening Challenge
Youth will put their listening skills to the test through a variety of fun Minute to Win It style challenges that require teamwork and communication. Youth will then explore what it means to be an active listener, why feeling heard matters, and how listening can help strengthen relationships and reduce misunderstandings. The session will wrap-up with youth-choice activities, providing opportunities to connect!
