One weekend night many of the youth in our male Crisis Program were getting ready to go to bed early. It was only 9:30pm, but recently many of the young men currently staying with us wouldn’t sit out and chat with each other as other youth had in the past. Instead these youth would usually stick with a short conversation before escaping to their rooms to sleep, or would quietly watch T.V.
This night however we were lucky to have pizza donated to us, and the youth were informed of the pizza and pop that were available as a snack. That night a small group of youth, and a couple of youth workers sat around the table eating pizza and talking.
The conversation ended up turning into a bonding experience between the youth as they talked about their life growing up, their culture, and their hopes and passions in life. Each of these youth who normally would be in bed before 10pm were awake until close to midnight.
After this experience their interactions with each other had changed and they would speak to each other more as friends than as acquaintances. They asked more thoughtful questions about each others day and spending longer periods of time in the common space chatting before going to bed.
One late night pizza party was all it took to created new friendships.
Shared by Allison, Youth Worker at our Crisis Program