This one day training will equip attendees with rich knowledge and confidence in games and team-building activities as vital foundations to healthy group dynamics. The Games Training is relevant for current and future educators, managers, supervisors, mentors, and facilitators that want to create a learning and work environment that fosters brave risk taking, relationship building, and lifts up the importance of having fun.

Objectives:

Participants will…

• Gain a philosophical framework for youth and group development work rooted in the Life Cycle of a Group
• Learn a basic team-building framework including concepts like Challenge by Choice and powerful debrief conversations
• Leave with a set of games to take with them, some of which we will introduce during the training, relevant to each phase in the Life Cycle of a Group
• Understand the context for why and when to play games, which ones to use for the particular setting and dynamics of a group, and how to modify games to accommodate people

Lunch, beverages, and snacks will be provided. GRuB is an approved Clock Hour provider and hours will be available for educators who need them.

$100 registration fee per person, which can be paid through the online registration. If you need to pay in another way, please contact us.

If the registration fee is a barrier to your participation, you are invited to fill out our discount/scholarship survey that may offer support.

Please let us know if you require accommodations to attend this training and we will do our best to accommodate you. Indoor masking is no longer required at GRuB. If this prevents you from participating in this training, please reach out. We anticipate being outside the entire time, however.

For questions or support, contact Wade at wade@goodgrub.org, or 360-753-5522.

"I appreciate the meta process of learning and playing a game, debriefing it, and then talking about how it's applicable for me. I love experiencing facilitators and learning and then getting a chance to really integrate it into my toolbelt."   -2024 Games Training Attendee

"There were a lot of insights about the level of trust and how to cultivate more trust, along with how this correlates to participants’ willingness to take risks. This was a dynamic workshop in which we explored the many stages a group goes through with games and group discussion."   -2023 Games Training Attendee

"I loved that we went through the process together and moved between thinking like a participant and a facilitator. Excellent modeling of skills."   -2023 Games Training Attendee

Trainers:

Kim Gaffi (she/her) is the co-founder of GRuB and served as Co-Director, Executive Director, and Director of Youth Programs from 1997 through 2019. Kim has led GRuB’s work in building a successful youth empowerment program that engages youth in food justice work. Kim has successfully collaborated with multiple school districts to integrate GRuB’s food justice curriculum and youth development model into area high schools with GRuB-like programs now being offered to students from Capital High School, Olympia High School, and Tumwater School District. She has also helped to launch similar programs through other organizations and agencies throughout the state, such as Cultivating Roots hosted by Grays Harbor Health Department in Aberdeen, WA, and the GRITS program within Eatonville School District. Kim has written Career and Technical Education (CTE) frameworks outlining the curriculum taught in the GRuB School model as well as the Tend, Gather, and Grow curriculum. She graduated from The Evergreen State College with a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development and Bachelor of Science in Urban Ecology. Kim now supports GRuB projects as an independent contractor.

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Wade Uyeda (he/him) is a GRuB alum who returned to join the staff in 2009. Over the span of 14+ years, he has deeply engaged with GRuB’s youth program model, holding various roles such as Farm Manager, CTE Teacher for GRuB School, Youth Programs Manager, and now Program Director. Wade has mentored and taught over 300 Opportunity Youth in their inaugural GRuB programs, provided guidance to more than 50 youth alum Farm Assistants and Peer Crew Leaders, and supervised five AmeriCorps Youth Program Counselors. Central to his leadership has been the integration of games and team-building activities, as he possesses a nuanced understanding of how to adapt these activities to suit the unique dynamics of each group. Wade has played integral roles in supporting every 3-day Institute offered by GRuB, including co-designing and co-facilitating the August 2022 and May 2023 Institutes. Additionally, he co-designed and co-facilitated the inaugural games training in February 2023, reprising his role as co-facilitator for the February 2024 training.

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