Dream Center Dreams - Reality Check!

We had our first official AOK session at the Dream Center of Peoria, and I gave myself a C+ for overall effort.  

The flow was a bit off, and our timing just wasn't right.  The kids though, wow, what wonderful kids.  I will have to make the activities have a bit more "punch".  We worked with the theme of Respect, since Jojo the director had just had a session on Respect with the boys. Of course I don't have the depth of relationship or charisma that Jojo has.  What I bring to the table is the fun element, the game element, the self-expression and creativity and art.  So that is it.  The art activity has to be completely engaging.

Our first activity was based on the AOK Level 1 handbook.  To create a crest.  I think it was a bit hard for them to imagine what a crest represents.  They hadn't yet been introduced to the vocabulary of the virtues either, so when the activity required them to come up with the qualities they respect in their loved ones, they could describe the quality, but didn't necessarly have the words.  That was a plus in some ways.  Many of the kids put their mom as someone they respected.  Mom was seen as always doing things for them, cooking, buying them things--putting them first. These descriptions were excellent examples of the virtues. I gave them some ideas for qualities, like generosity and selflessness. 

I just had a realization, this is the core of the work.  We are connecting the concept, the word, to the actual behaviors.  So for example, when working the other way around, when using the word Respect, they could come up with conceptual ideas, like 'treating others as you would want to be treated', which is of course one of the best guides for living, but the specifics need to be fleshed out.  So this is really where we can come in and give them a chance to make those leaps from concept, to action, or from real life, to abstract reasoning.  If we can achieve this, we have achieved the goals of the AOK program.

It was good, but I just felt a bit off, too much "school" like.  Too much, I have to do this rather than I want to.  The goal is for them to attend completely voluntarily.  For them to move through the activities entirely based on their intrinsic motivation.  No coersion, no need for forcing.

The final issue was the communication.  It is hard to have the kind of planning and connection when you have a moving train with 60 kids.  We had to change rooms at the beginning, which honestly, I love the new room!  There were a few ideas I wanted to share, but there wasn't the chance. With that said, we had the team member come and check on us while we were debriefing, and she was so kind and present, a quality of awareness that is rare.  We had a chance to talk to her about next time.  Some things will take time to unfold.  The goal is to build the relationship.  This was the goal from the beginning.  June was to be the launch of the AOK full program, these sessions building up to that were meant to allow us to get to know those who are running the program, how it works, and build a realtionship and awareness of who the kids at the program are.

So overall, given it was our first day, I will leave with this final assessment: there is room for improvement. There is every reason to be hopeful.  As they say in AA, we just need to "Keep Coming Back".