Lights, Camera, Empathy !

Inspired and adapted from the Trevor Educational Material: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/education/lifeguard-workshop/

Duration of activity:  80 minutes (or 60 minutes if there will be no enactment)

Learning objectives:

• Help young people overcome their concerns about stepping in and helping a friend who is going through a difficult time
• Encourage young people to take action and provide support by understanding that this is the only way you can help a friend break the cycle of abuse
• Explore how young people can provide support
• Explore how the Y-CARE model (you are not alone; connect the person to resources; accept their feelings; respond with empathy; encourage the person to take action) can be useful.

Materials needed:

• Handouts of the case studies
• Flipchart paper, flipchart stand, markers
• Explanation of the acronym Y-CARE on a flipchart or PPT slide

Step by step process of the activity:

Introductory part (15 minutes)

1. Ask young people to think of a time when a friend asked them for help or advice. Brainstorm on how this made them feel and write the words that describe these emotions on the board/flipchart. Remind the young people of the safety, anonymity and confidentiality guidelines in the group agreement and encourage them not to share details of the event, but only the words to describe the feeling. 
2. Encourage the group to be specific and descriptive when describing how they felt.  For instance, a person may mention  feeling that it was meaningful/good that someone trusted them enough to ask for help; another person may mention feeling nervous/worried about saying the wrong thing or helpless because they didn’t know how to react. 
3. Then, ask young people to think of a time when they were the ones asking for help or advice. Brainstorm on how that felt for them and write the emotions mentioned on the board/flipchart. Perhaps some people felt worried about being judged, or embarrassed or relieved. Similarly, remind them of the guidelines for safe space and point out that no specific details of the specific event are needed but you’re only discussing the feelings.
4. Once the group has had a chance to reflect on how it feels to ask for and to receive help, ask them to think of what types of comments can be helpful to a person who asks for support. Challenge them by asking: would comments such as “that’s not a big deal, get over it” be helpful or they would sound dismissive. Encourage them to think of the positive comments that are more helpful such as ‘that sounds really difficult’ or ‘I’m sorry you’re going through difficult times. Thank you for sharing it with me. Let’s see how you can deal with this’ or ‘You are not alone in this. I am here and I am glad you reached out’ etc.
5. Write the positive comments and questions on the board.
6. Present the  young people with the acronym ‘Y-CARE’ and tell them that this can help them think of helpful things they can say when someone reaches out to them for help. 
7. Explain that Y-CARE has been created by the organization ‘The Trevor Project’ which supports young people through difficult times. You can show the following on a slide:
   • You are never alone. Don’t feel that you have to carry all the burden when someone reaches out to you for help. It may feel overwhelming to be the only source of support. You can ask them to also turn to other friends and family and adults they trust
   • Connect the person to helpful resources (helplines, NGOs, trusted adults, community services, school counsellors, social workers or other places where they can get support)
   • Accept the feelings of the person. Listen- actively listen and show that you care. Understand that what they are feeling feels true and valid for them. Don’t dismiss their feelings because they are important to them. 
   • Respond with empathy and understanding. Acknowledge that it is difficult for them and that it was courageous of them to reach out to someone.
   • Empower them to get help or to take action to stop an abusive, difficult, unhealthy situation. 
     
     Case study analysis ( 35 minutes)
     
8. Now tell the young people that they will act like script writers to a movie and they will write a script of how a person could react when a friend of theirs is in trouble. Once they finish their script, they can act it out in a short role play (sketch) of duration 2 minutes max. They have 25 minutes to write the script and to rehearse the role play.
9. Split the plenary in smaller groups and present the groups with a different scenario on which to work on.
10. As the groups are working on the task, go around the groups and help out, prompt the group with questions to provide food for thought or just observe what is going on.
11. Once the groups finish with their scripts, they present their role plays in front of the plenary

Facilitation questions for reflection and debriefing: (15-20 minutes)

• Watching the different scripts, which reactions did you find particularly useful? What worked well? Can you identify these positive interventions more specifically and name them?
• Is there something that you would have done differently? Before you give your feedback, let us remind us of our rules on no-judgement. We are all here to learn and any mistakes were not intentionally negative nor does it mean that the scripts show that the people don’t care.
• Is it easy you think to take action and try to help a friend who is going through difficult times? What may make it easy? What may make it difficult and hold us back?
• What will happen though if we don’t take action and don’t help out?
• How can we show self-care, i.e. support to ourselves when we’re trying to support a friend?

Tips for adapting the activity and follow up:

You can adapt the scenarios and/or create new ones so that they better reflect your local contexts and are more relevant to young people realities.