event #2: youth night, YMCA

For my next YDEV event, I attended a "youth night" at the YMCA in Middletown, RI, where I intern at currently. It goes from 6-9 and is hosted almost every Friday night for children between the ages of 10-14. It gives these children a chance to spend more time at the YMCA, and gives them a safe place to spend their Friday night. The ideology is that if kids these ages are more supervised in a safe space such as the YMCA on a Friday night, it will keep them from doing inappropriate bad things, such as smoking or drinking. It is important that at these ages (middle school) that kids are closely monitored and given a certain amount of attention to ensure that they don't misbehave and act out outside of school and home.

The YMCA staff facilitated many activities for the children while they were there from 6-9. For starters, the staff organized a co-ed basketball game. There were about 15 children in attendance. This game went on for over an hour. At which point, the staff ordered pizza for all of the children, to not only feed them but make them feel comfortable. After which, instead of sitting them down to watch a movie or relax, the children got to play dodgeball! (which not many schools do nowadays) It was fun to see how much enjoyment the children got out of this. Also, it made me feel better knowing that these children would rather spend their Friday night at the YMCA with their peers than out drinking or smoking or doing inappropriate things.

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(this is an example of a flyer for one of these youth nights)

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