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 If you have an interest in youth work, you have to know that the day will soon come when you find yourself joining the family of the rest of us who have endured that great struggle known as "the youth group road trip." This article is a brief guide toward taking yourself and your youth out on the road. (May God have mercy on your soul.) Without further delay, here is one list:
1. Plan ahead. No, really. Plan ahead. When you are taking youth on the road, there are a number of things you need to know such as:
a. Where are you going and how do you get there? Google Maps is really helpful here. Print out directions (and put a link to the map on the church website) for all the parents who are NOT going with you as well.
b. How long is it going to take, and where are you going to need to stop? Believe me, the longer you travel, the more often these questions will come back to you, usually with a bit of a whiny tone to them. Have some good ideas about this, and share as much as you can before you leave. It won't stop the whining, but it will at least make you feel better and might instill some confidence in the group that you actually do have a plan.
c. What mode of transport will you be using and who is responsible for things like driving, head-counting, entertainment, and protecting the driver from the passengers? You have to really know this far in advance, and be sure that both the drivers and personnel are both legal and utterly reliable. Also, be aware that whatever choice you make is going to offend someone, so be ready to make the best choice for the group, rather than the one that causes the least fuss, and be prepared to defend that choice.
d. Who is riding with who and how are things arranged? People are going to jockey about, and possibly fight, to make sure they get to sit where they want and that their stuff is handled a certain way. Work that out well before saddling up, or suffer.
e. What are you gonna do about food? Youth eat. A lot. Especially when they are away from home. That means you will have two problems: snacks and meals. You need to work out something about snacks, if for no other reasons than to keep them from being so hooped up on sugar they can't see straight and to keep your vehicles in some semblance of cleanliness and order. One suggestion here: bring your own drink cooler and you choose (after hearing from them) what goes into and out of it. As to the other problem, you need to be aware that people need to eat every 4-6 hours and plan accordingly, and you also need to bear in mind that youth are not always the best people to entrust with their own spending money to take care of their own meals. With that in mind, you should strongly consider setting aside a sum of money (pre-sorted, in individual envelopes) for meals that you can quickly hand out to kids as they disembark. I used to do $5 per stop, knowing that it was not enough for some meals, but that some were cheaper than others and the kids could keep what they did not spend. Nowadays, $7 is a bit closer, but you need to be able to pass money out in a way that can be done quickly and efficiently.
2. Make and keep rules! Having good rules makes everything a lot easier. Here are some that always worked for me: a. Rule for yourself - never let people out of a vehicle until they know exactly what you expect of them, such as what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to be back, etc.
b. When you are on the road, never let any youth go anywhere alone - EVER. Everyone should be responsible for at least one other person, but groups of more than two people at a time are even better.
c. At least one person in every group should have a watch or, preferably, a cell phone. People need to be where they should be and when they should be, and need some way to make contact if there is a problem.
d. The standard three rules apply in every situation: "Don't do anything that you know is a stupid thing to do"; "Do no harm to anyone, their emotions, or their property;"; and "Remember who the leader is. All the other adults derive authority from you, so they should be obeyed as if they were you and all complaints should come to you, not them." These three things should be like a mantra to whatever youth you work with in almost any situation.
e. Big rule: obey the rules. If you are clear on the rules, and people clearly violate them (adults included), there have to be consequences that are fair and easily understood or the rules will come to mean nothing. Since it is potentially damaging to youth to single them out for a good yelling in front of the group, and you only get to dress down the entire group once every 9 months or so before you that goes bad, you need to think of some good quiet options in advance - up to and including sending someone home.
3. Finally.... Be careful.
a. This is part of planning, but you need to make sure that parents and other responsible people know where/when to expect you to be, and that there is some organized system of communication among the "back home" folks. This is one of the better ways to be sure that bad things do not occur, or, if they do, that you have some means of dealing with it.
b. Another part of that is to be sure that most, if not all, kids have some means of contacting their parents, such as a cell phone or calling card, and that you absolutely do. Again, should you need to be rescued, or if you're just running early or late, this will save you a lot of grief.
c. Now that I'm no longer the driver, I'll get all hypocritical and point out that you have to be especially careful when you're driving and be sure that any other vehicles that you are traveling with can keep up with you or at least make pre-set rendezvous. If you can afford them, professional drivers are better yet.
d. Be sure to have COMPLETE health information and authorization for everyone with whom you are travelling. Should someone have to be treated for something (even careful people can step out of a van or off the bus and hurt themselves), you need to be able to take action immediately and not have to depend on someone who is many miles away. Also, there is no substitute for a very good first aid kit.
There are a lot more things to be said, and every group has different concerns as they travel. The foregoing list was merely a bit of what I learned over close to 20 years of youth ministry, where I am proud to say that, pre-arranged dropoffs aside, I always came back with as many people as I left with, and usually the same ones. Hopefully, you and your group will have many safe journeys ahead of you.
Photo by colorblindpicaso
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