Mark, a leader for a group of kids, wants to start a big community project where the kids help clean up the garbage along the rivers and streams in the city. He soon finds that he is overwhelmed, so he asks his kids to see if their parents want to get involved. From what the kids tell him, nobody really seems to show much interest in the project.

One parent does call him and asks what she can do to help. He complains to her about the failure of the project, telling her that she was the only one that cares enough about the community and the kids to help. He asks her if she wouldn’t mind picking the kids up for the next meeting. She called him back the next day, and told him that she can’t do it because something came up at work. Mark politely says, "thanks anyway," but then hangs up fuming. "Why doesn't anybody care about this project? Don’t these kids mean anything to them?"

How would you have handled the situation? What could Mark have done to get more help from the parents?

Activity #2

Consider a problem your group is having. Think about how this process might help to reach a solution. At your next meeting with other youth leaders, use this process to identify and find solutions to that problem.

Activity #3

Brush up on the conflict resolution strategies that you learned in Lesson 4 while applying them to situations with other volunteers by reading the following situation and answering the questions below.

Lance and Cindi were adult volunteers who though that the best way for the kids to raise money would be to have car wash at the mall. Cindi offered to help the children earn more money by taking half of the kids to another parking lot and doing a car wash there as well. Lance inwardly objected to the idea, thinking that it would be too much work and that he didn’t think she would be able to keep the kids under control without his supervision. Lance told Cindi not to worry about it, that he would manage the car wash himself.

Think how would a person who uses aggression or retreat respond to this situation. What might be the benefits of resolving the problem successfully? Please list other conflict resolution strategies you think might be useful to resolve this situation and describe a possible outcome of the strategy.