Tapestry of Faith: Heeding the Call: A Program on Justicemaking for Junior High School Youth

Activity 4: Dealing with Fear

Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Justicemakers Guide from Workshop 1
  • Slips of paper and pencils
  • Basket

Description of Activity

Youth explore fears and ways to approach their fears with courage.

Invite participants to find a comfortable place in the room. Ask them to spend a couple of minutes thinking about their fears in doing social justice work. After two minutes, distribute slips of paper to every participant and ask them to choose one fear to write on the slip of paper. Tell them that the fears will be shared anonymously, but if they do not wish to discuss their fear, they can write "Pass" on the slip of paper. Collect the fears in a basket and take turns choosing and reading aloud one fear at a time. The group will discuss ways to approach each fear that would take courage. If not enough fears are offered, consider talking about these: fear that you will lose friends, fear of being ridiculed, fear of being wrong, fear of being rejected by members of a marginalized group, or fear of bodily harm.

Once the basket is empty, discuss the following:

  • Courage has boundaries. When is it risking too much when facing a fear?
  • How can we help each other when facing fear?
  • What other resources do we have to help us with our fears? Include people resources-allies-in the discussion. Suggest that they use their Justicemakers Guide to list allies they can turn to when they need courage.