This is an archived resource. Please go to Deeper Joy in the Faith Curricula Library for an updated resource building on the long legacy of youth culture and movement building in our faith. There, you’ll notice some of the same games (updated to be their most inclusive version possible) and a nod to Denny Ryberg’s 5 stages of community building, which were the pillars of Deep Fun.

Some history: In the late 90s and early 2000s, UU youth created a compendium of the community building and faith formation strategies they employed and called it Deep Fun. A lot of the games in in Deep Fun come from the “folksphere:” who knows when or by whom they were invented, but they’ve been passed down by oral tradition in performance and movement circles for generations. Some games as they’re presented here would be hard to play and uphold our Youth Safety Guidelines at the same time and many require adaptations to be inclusive for all participants.

Games have always been an important part of Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth culture. Games are played in youth group meetings, at conferences, during worships, or to break up a business plenary session. Although games are a wonderful way to socialize, they can also fulfill other goals of successful youth programming. They can be a vehicle for learning, leadership, worship, and even social action. Games remind us that the spirit of fun can permeate everything we do and that fun can be full of meaning.

The book “Deep Fun: Games and Activities” documents the games that have been cherished by UU youth through the years. Since its development in 1998, our understanding of antiracism/anti-oppression/multicultural (AR/AO/MC) and accessibility issues has changed and developed. We encourage you to make these games your own by adapting them to the size, needs, and tastes of your group, as well as applying a more current AR/AO/MC/accessibility lens and an understanding of radical consent to their application.

To make this book more user-friendly for youth and advisors, it was organized into five chapters, loosely based on Denny Rydberg’s “Five Steps to Building Community.”