The Youth Involvement Program (YIPs) has been developed and widely tested in many clubs in Victoria with great success. The program was originally designed by Anglelsea Life Saving Club in 2002.

YIPs is a fantastic program that gives clubs the opportunity to retain youth members and expose them to many new facets of surf lifesaving and personal experiences that can help develop a youth member with broader knowledge and experiences. 

Exposing youth members to tasks that can develop leadership, lifesaving and personal skills can be a huge benefit to both the youth member and the club. Using a reward system for their time and effort will give youth members’ motivation to stay involved and complete their tasks.

The concept is quite simple. YIPs is a recognition and reward program with a similar concept to frequent flyers. Participants collect points for being involved in lifesaving activities. The more activities they engage in and the more hours they volunteer, the greater their point score. YIPs encourages participation in all areas of club activities including:

• Lifesaving            • Development        • Administration
• Junior Activities     • Youth Activities     • Club Activities

All of these areas can have organized activities that earn points. Examples:

• Lifesaving-complete all rostered patrols
• Development-attend a club, state or National leadership camp.
• Administration-help out on registration day
• Junior activities-assist an age manager
• Youth activities-organise an activity or social event
• Club activity-help with a social event or busy bee.
 

This program should be set-up to benefit your club and your youth members.  Each club will have different needs and different programs for their members.  The idea is to be flexible and get as much input from your youth members as possible.  This will ensure a better success rate for the program at your club.  There are many variables that can be investigated by each club in an effort to find the right recipe.

Cottesloe SLSC have successfully modified the YIPS program to suit their Youth club members.  If you'd like more information please email Katie Redbond at Cottesloe SLSC via email on junioractivities@cottsurf.com

www.lifesavingvictoria.com.au

Please contact Renee Scully at rscully@mybeach.com.au or 9243 9444 for more information