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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Kind signs

Pass your friends a compliment – without letting them know who it’s from!
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Coloured pens or pencils
  • Scrap paper

Before you begin

  • Make sure there’s enough paper for everyone – everyone will need five or six slips of paper.

Write a pat on the back

  1. Everyone should get into groups of about five people.
  2. Each group should find a space. The person leading the activity should give each group some paper and pens.
  3. The person leading the game should label each group A, B, C, D and so on.
  4. Everyone should write a positive message for each person in the next group – group A should write for group B, group B for group C, and so on. The last group should write for group A.
  1. Once everyone’s finished their messages, each group should take it in turns to close their eyes while the group that wrote about them deliver their messages.
  2. Everyone should open their eyes and read all of their positive messages. If they want to, they could keep their kind signs for a time they need a little boost.

Reflection

In this activity, everyone had the chance to write an anonymous message for someone else. How did it feel to receive kind messages and not know who wrote them? When do people usually hear kind things? Maybe people are used to hearing kind things from their friends, but not from people they’re less close to. How did it feel to think about kind things? Hopefully it boosted people’s moods a bit to send and receive the messages.

Why is it important to say nice things to others? Did it feel good to receive kind messages? What will everyone do with the messages they received?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Make the groups bigger or smaller – if there’s enough paper, people could even try to write something nice about everyone else in the group!

You could make it more anonymous (and a bit more complex) by mixing the groups up and secretly telling each group who they’ll be writing for. That way, people won’t be able to narrow it down.

People could also draw pictures and ask for help with writing and spelling. It doesn’t matter if the messages aren’t perfect.

Think about how you’ll make sure everyone’s included, especially if some people are new or they don’t know others as well.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.