This last Friday, students at Springdale Job Corps Center gathered in the gym to participate in a variety of cooperative games to highlight building a community on center. Recreation Advisor Mitchell Cooper has embraced the Youth2Youth campaign and with the help of students came up with a series of games to highlight cooperation and community.

“Ultimately, the students build their community,” Mitch explained. “They decide how to welcome new students, how to treat each other, what is and isn’t acceptable.” Students were separated in to groups based on cartoon characters, bugs, and cars. Success was determined by how well the group of students worked together to complete a task.

One game, called “Human Fly,” required each group of students to cooperate and use some engineering skill to stick two of their classmates to the gym wall using the least amount of duct tape as possible. Each group started out with similar approaches, choosing the lightest students to act as flies, but that is where styles diverged significantly. One group was more interested in making sure their student stuck than how little duct tape they could use.

Another game required students to plan and build balloon-popping tools made of paper straws, toothpicks, tape, and a plastic cup. The goal was to pop two of the 12 balloons taped to basketball hoops. The cartoon character team got the swing of it, quickly dispatching their two balloons.

“We’re in the process of building our Y2Y committee,” Mitch continued. “Our first Y2Y ambassador is currently in the college program and has limited time to give to the project, but there has been a lot of interest in what we’re doing and I think the students that helped with the community building event are interested in helping develop the program.”

The Youth2Youth program is a student-led effort to reduce violence and increase positive communication on Job Corps centers around the country. It has led to students taking on leadership positions and thinking critically of their role in creating a positive learning environment.