The Yes/No Game...Acknowledging Your Boundaries

Materials: One index card for each person

Details: Here’s an activity best done with fellow volunteers or co-workers. Invite people to be comfortably seated around a table or living room. Allow yourselves about 30 minutes or more, as desired. Give each person an index card or piece of paper with one side reading “yes” and the other “no.” Chose one person as the Master of Ceremonies (MC). The MC begins by reading aloud one of the following statements and then asking each person to express their agreement or disagreement by holding up the appropriate “yes” or “no” card. Ask people to briefly share the reason they agree or disagree with the statement and then move on to the next statement. This game is all about the presence or absence of boundaries. It’s value comes from developing and defining your own reasoning and listening to that offered by others.

It is good for a country to have clearly defined borders (or boundaries).
It is crucial for an individual to know what his or her personal boundaries are.
There should be no boundaries between volunteers and their clients (or students, etc.) I might change this one to something like “volunteers should do absolutely everything possible to serve their clients/students, even if it means having to miss out on important community events of meetings once in a while.” I suggest this, as the way it is stated, I don’t think anyone would respond “yes”
Living as a volunteer is very much like an extension of living as a college student.
It’s good for a volunteer to have an “open door” policy concerning the room/house where he/she lives.
What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.
People should stop acknowledging cultural and ethnic differences between people.
When volunteers live together in a community setting there should be no personal boundaries. I might say “when volunteers live together in a community setting, personal boundaries must change in order to accommodate the community.”
Volunteers should immerse themselves entirely in their host culture/community, striving to truly become one with the people they serve.
The kids volunteers work with need love and affection in their lives. Volunteers should offer to give kids hugs when they need them.
In order to get to know the youth that volunteers work with, they should hang out with them outside of the work environment and try to become their friends.