Skip to main content

Compass is offline while we prepare our new tools

Compass is offline while we prepare our new tools

Compass is now offline. Read more

Discover what this means

YouShape idea circles

Circles are a great way for everyone to share their ideas about your Squirrels YouShape Award Theme.

Back to Activities

You’ll need

  • A way to write or note down ideas, such as paper and pen
  • Tokens to vote for ideas, such as counters

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.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 

Planning and setting up this activity

  • This is a chance for people to share their ideas about how you will experience the YouShape Award. Tell everyone in advance that you’ll be thinking about ideas of how people want to do the YouShape Award, so they have time to think of ideas.
  • Some people might suggest places for your group to visit, games to play based on your theme or books to read.
  • If you plan on having a vote, you could have tokens ready, such as pretend coins, stickers or counters. 
  • You may want to use this activity for other stages of the badge, such as thinking of ideas of how you’ll lead or deciding how you’ll represent your work by telling others.
  • This activity may contribute towards the Planning section of the YouShape Award, depending on the Scouts section you’re in. If this session completes the requirement for an individual or a group, you may want to hand the ‘Plan’ badge out at the end of the session.

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone in a circle. Everyone should have already chosen or set a theme for their Central Badge. You may want to remind everyone what their theme was. It may be an individual theme or a whole section theme that you decided on together.
  2. Explain that you’re all going to be coming up with ideas about what they want to do to achieve their YouShape Award. You may want to tell everyone a bit about the badge requirements or the things they might to do.
  3. Ask people to share their ideas on what they’d like to do. You may want to have smaller group discussions or let people share ideas in pairs, then bring them back to the group.
  4. Choose someone who wants to share their idea. They can tell everyone their idea, show people drawings or show people objects. People can then ask them any questions.
  5. You may want to offer prompt questions or choices based on the theme, or make suggestions yourself, to help start the discussion. You could ask, ‘What does X make you think of? Have you ever been anywhere, or seen anything, that relates to X?’ If people find it difficult, you could have a ready-made list of ideas for people to use and pick from. It might inspire another idea.
  6. If people have small group or individual themes for their YouShape Award, each person or group can share their ideas with the group, then get feedback or answer questions from everyone else. 
  7. Keep gathering ideas and note them all down, making sure everyone who wants to share ideas has the chance to. Remember, no-one should be forced to share their ideas if they don’t want to and that’s OK.
  8. At the end, ask everyone to put a plan together. If you’re doing YouShape as one group, try to include as many ideas and ways to explore the theme as possible. The ideas need to be as suitable and accessible for all individuals. For example, for a theme to learn more about sea life, some young people may want to see sea animals and work together to plan a trip to an aquarium. One person may want to focus on protecting sea life by stopping ocean plastics and they could share their ideas about a beach clean-up. Another person might want to create rainbow fish art, based on a book they love.
  9. You may want or need to vote on the ideas to help you put the plan together. It’s hard for someone’s idea not to be chosen, so remember to make sure to offer support and plan in time to think of something to do with all the ideas that weren’t voted for this time. You could also have an anonymous vote. Having a choice of three or four ideas can be better than a choice between two, as more than one idea isn’t chosen, making sure no-one's ideas are singled out.
  10. People can also put together their own personal plan if they have an individual focus for their YouShape Award. 

Reflection

This activity involves lots of listening and teamwork. How did everyone listen and work as a team? Did you offer feedback or ask people questions to help them with their ideas?

This activity was also about coming up with ideas. How did people think of their ideas? Were they inspired by anything or by anyone else? Did anyone else’s ideas help develop your own? What was it like sharing your idea with the group? 

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.

Phones and cameras

Make sure parents and carers are aware and have given consent for photography.

To make it easier, have prompts for people to think about their ideas. For younger ages, you could also offer some ideas and hold a vote, then decide who wants to work on each area or develop more ideas around the ones voted for.

  • People can work in small groups or pairs when suggesting their ideas, or the Section could all work together as a one big group, depending on what will work best for your group.
  • Remember that listening skills aren’t the same for all young people. For example, a young person may need to move, lie down, be standing or fiddle with something, rather than sit in one place to do their best listening. ‘Sitting still’ can make listening more difficult. Try to build movement breaks into your activities to help people who may struggling sitting for long periods.
  • Consider having a sensory box with different sensory input games/toys to help people focus while sitting down. What this includes may be different depending on the needs of the young people. People may also want to use a weighted blanket on their lap or wobble cushion for sitting on.
  • If someone needs support in writing down their ideas or drawing, give them the opportunity to work with someone else to help them. You could also have pictures, scissors and glue sticks available for people to create collages rather than writing or drawing.
  • People who struggle with making choices could find all the options a bit overwhelming, so they might need extra support. They might want to work with a friend, young leader or volunteer to be able to help them to choose. A closed choice can be easier to make than an open question, as people can nod or shake their head in response.
  • Remember, people should only speak or present ideas if they're happy and comfortable to. Not everyone has to present or speak.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Squirrels YouShape Award: Plan