A big part of your role as a youth worker is to run meetings and groups with young people. You’ll need to have the confidence to jump in and facilitate, lead conversations and adapt when things go wrong. Using the skills and knowledge from this resource you’ll be ready to handle potential problems that arise.  

  • Adaptability and creativity: this involves being able to think through options and being open to making changes as you go. What options are open to me in this moment? 

  • Active listening: being curious and paying attention to all parties involved and being attuned to their emotions and body language. 

  • Collaboration: work with your colleagues and ask who can help me in this moment? 

  • Timing: have a guide on how long each talking point should be but be open to this changing.  

  • Quick decision making and being assertive: what is the easiest and best solution right now? What is the next step? How can I delegate at this moment?  

  • Communication: Always have a form of communication set up with your teammates such as a private chat when working online. 

  • Be transparent: tell people if you are experiencing tech issues/ gone off the run sheet – not what you planned.  

  • Work with your teammates, not against them when things go wrong! 

  • Work with silence. Give people time to think about the question you’ve just asked them and their response.1 

  • Debriefing: allow time and space to debrief and reflect on where things haven’t worked or have gone wrong, asking how can we avoid this next time?  

  • Read more about problem solving tips from SessionLab2

Step 1: Identify the problem  

  • This would likely be done during the meeting or group. You would unpack and further define this with the team in a debrief.

Step 2: Analyse and refine  

  • Spend some further time discussing the problem and see if it relates to a broader or underlying issue. Seek feedback from your manager and team at this stage.  

Step 3: Generate a solution 

  • Have a judgment free brainstorm and get creative with it!  

Step 4: Develop a solution  

  • Flesh out the details, risks and likely effect of the best solution options.  

Step 5: Decision making and planning  

  • Determine with your manager and the team the best solution from the brainstorm. You might build on this to get all the details right and seek out expert advice. Delegate tasks as needed and how the solution will be measured.  

Step 6: Implement the solution  

  • Start using your solution! Make note of how the solution works out in the wild and report this back to your manager and team through your debrief.  

Step 7: Evaluate the solution

  •  Adjust the solution as needed when given feedback. Unpack the learning, the specific problem and its solution to see if it could be applied elsewhere or be the basis of a new policy or procedure.  

Created from Sessions Lab’s seven-step process2 

  • It’s okay to stop and think! You don’t have to throw out an answer straight away, especially if you aren’t confident it is correct.  

  • Be transparent with the young person. Acknowledge that you don’t know the answer and that you could find it either during the break or between meetings.  

  • You can try posing the question back to the wider group to see if the participants know the answer. 

  • Be adaptable! You could add in an energiseror take a break (with food!) in the session to reset the space.  

  • Change the format of an activity to be more engaging (eg: rather than having a discussion-based activity in a main room, move to a new space or put people into pairs to have breakout room discussions). 

  • Ask the group how they feel it’s going and what could make the activity feel more engaging/relevant. 

  • In the moment, respectfully say to the young person who made the comment that disabled people aren’t inspirational for doing something an able-bodied person can do. But that it would be okay to say that young person is inspirational because of how amazing their singing voice is.3

  • Where potential or actual conflict arises due to a a be verbal or non-verbal, overt or more subtle and include insensitive statements, questions, actions or assumptions towards people of a marginalised group.microaggressions, break down the language and bias that is used in the comment. Educate the young person on the marginalised community their comment is based on and dispel any myths that might have come up during the conversation.4  

  • Have a private follow up chat with the young person who made the comment and the young person who received the comment if you think this is needed.  

  • Ensure that everyone feels heard and understood. 

  • Encourage constructive, empowering and respectful dialogue in line with group agreements.

As facilitators and youth workers, we’re just guides! We aren’t always experts and it’s okay not to know something or make a mistake when running a group, meeting or event for young people. If you are transparent with young people and do what you say you’re going to do, you’ll create great rapport and trust in your groups with young people. Facing setbacks in our workshops and meetings are a great opportunity to role model that things rarely work out exactly as we planned and that we can always find ways to build our resilience and learn and grow from challenges.  

1. Drawing Change. (2022). 15 Online Facilitation Tips: increase participation online with this free resource. https://drawingchange.com/15-ways-to-facilitate-online-participation-out-loud-in-your-next-meeting/ 

2. SessionLab. (2024). 40 problem-solving techniques and processes. https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/problem-solving-techniques/ 

3. The Chicago Lighthouse. (n.d.) Commentary: Responding to people who call those with disabilities 'inspirational'. https://chicagolighthouse.org/sandys-view/commentary-responding-to-people-who-call-those-with-disabilities-inspirational/ 

4. Youth Disability Advocacy Service. (n.d.) What are some barriers to disability pride? https://www.yacvic.org.au/ydas/resources-and-training/pride-guide-employers/barriers-pride/

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