Youth Support Groups

Our Youth Support Groups (also known as Community Circles) are empowerment-centered, trauma-informed spaces for middle school and high school-aged youth. Different from a psychological processing group, our Groups provide an opportunity for youth to build community and learn skills related to violence prevention and healthy relationships through discussion and activities.

Youth Support Groups aim to support youth as they navigate difficult situations in their relationships and their understanding of how to embody healthy relationships. We seek to achieve these goals as a means of preventing potential violence in the community. Groups are offered at school sites, as well as SAVE’s Empowerment Center at 1900 Mowry Avenue, Suite 201, Fremont, CA 94538. Groups can be offered as 90-minute or 40-50-minute sessions.

Examples of Youth Support Group Topics:

• Healthy Relationships: What Are They (And Are They Not?)
• How to Have Challenging Conversations
• Identifying and Communicating Emotions (with an activity adapted and made our own from the Pick a Feeling and The Mask I Wear activities found in the Guided Art Therapy Card Deck developed by licensed art therapist Emily Sharp, LCAT, ATR-BC; note: these activities were adapted to include guided self-reflection through journaling, rather than a focus on creating an art project)
• Other topics you feel that your community would benefit from!

We also offer a two-part series of Youth Support Groups and Art Empowerment Workshops (AEWs) at middle school sites. Students participate in a Youth Support Group during the first meeting and an AEW during the second meeting. The Youth Support Groups and AEWs in this two-part series can also apply to high school-aged youth.

Examples of Youth Support Groups and AEW Pairings

• 6th Grade: Emotions
  • Youth Support Group: Identifying and Communicating Emotions
  • AEW: Self-Care Stones (Art Skill: coloring, creating touchstones)
• 7th Grade: Healthy Relationships
  • Youth Support Group: Healthy Relationships: What Are They (And Are They Not?)
  • AEW: Values and Relationship Garden (Art Skill: painting; also involves planting)
• 8th Grade: Challenging Conversations
  • Youth Support Group: How to Have Challenging Conversations
  • AEW: My Connections (adapted and made our own from the My Connections activity in the Guided Art Therapy Card Deck developed by licensed art therapist Emily Sharp, LCAT, ATR-BC) (Art Skill: painting, using Mod Podge with tissue paper)