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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

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Make a decision

First suggested by The Politics Project
Think about the government’s role in decision making and the issues that matter to you
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Scrap paper
  • Pens or pencils
  • worksheet
Making A Decision Worksheet Youth Resources General Election 2024
PDF – 935.0KB
Download Making A Decision Worksheet Youth Resources General Election 2024

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.  
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.

The Politics Project’s is a non-biased education organisation that specialises in supporting young people to use their voice and learn about democracy. They run a range of programmes across the UK, to support young people to engage with elections, politics and voting.  

 

Running the activity 

  1. Gather everyone together and ask everyone to think about what issues matter to them. If anyone wants to, they could share their thoughts.
  2. Ask if anyone can think about if or when they’ve seen, read or heard of these issues being brought up in the news or by politicians, such as at a debate. Ask everyone to think about how important they think it is that these issues are discussed or included in political debates, manifestos or discussions. 
  3. Give everyone a worksheet and, as a whole group, chat through each of the categories. You could all think of a definition for each one, making sure everyone understands what it means.
      • Education 
      • Transport 
      • Welfare 
      • Immigration 
      • Defence 
      • International Aid 
      • Health 
      • Law enforcement 
  4. Ask everyone to rank each of the different areas from what is most important to them for politicians to talk about to what is least important. You could cut out the categories and then rank the cards in order. You could use the worksheet and write numbers on. You could also have people get into groups of eight, with each person representing a different area, and ask them to line up in what their group’s order of importance is.
  5. After everyone has finished, ask everyone to get into pairs or join with another group. The pair or groups should compare their answers. Once they’ve compared them, ask the new pair or group to work together to re-rank the categories again, based on what they both or all think the order should be. They may need to make compromises to come to an agreement or they may perhaps persuade each other to think differently.
  6. After the group has re-ranked the categories, based on what they both or all think, ask them to join another pair or group and re-rank them again. Again, they may need to discuss each one, making compromises or debating each topic. 
  7. Keep going, until the teams have doubled in size enough that the whole group is back together. 
  8. When everyone’s back together, ask people to share what the group’s final decision was. You could ask everyone how the compromises went, what went well and what could be improved. How did you compromise, especially for what was at the top? Did anyone make any good arguments or persuasions?  Did anyone change their views completely?  Was everyone happy with the result, or was anyone unhappy? How did you communicate and listen to each other? Did anyone not get the voice heard or feel ignored or left out? Is there anything not listed which you would have added? 

Reflection

This activity encourages young people to discuss what issues matter to them. It supports young people to explore priorities, defend their views and compromise on their opinions and ideas to others. How did you feel about it? Was there anything no mentioned which should have been? Was there anyone who compromised all their views or someone who refused to compromise on their priorities? How does this link into politics? 

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.

Contact games and activities

Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

  • To make this activity easier, people work in pairs or small groups, with a worksheet between them. 

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.