We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, Trendy Mami may collect a share of sales or other compensations from the links on this page.
–
Running youth programs often proves a rewarding endeavor. Through the services, you get to know truly unique kids, sow into them, and watch them grow and shine. You may also feel like you have a broader sense of purpose that lends meaning to your life. Realistically, though, youth programs can’t work without many supplies. After all, you and your colleagues need to serve children with a wide variety of needs, and that requires a lot. With the right youth services supplies, you’ll find it easier to achieve your mission and help more of the children in your care!
Necessary Youth Services Supplies
Cleaning Supplies and Disinfectants
Working with children involves exposing them (and yourself) to a lot of germs and bacteria. In fact, bringing kids together for any program causes them to have increased interactions with each other, building the chances of causing an outbreak of several illnesses. Children also don’t always know the best practices for keeping illnesses from spreading.
So, cleaning and disinfecting should remain high on your priority list for your youth services program. Below, we’ll get into some of the products you’ll need to order in bulk.
Liquid Hand Soap
Keeping your bathrooms and kitchen sinks stocked with liquid hand soap reduces the spread of germs by encouraging proper hand washing.
The youth programs takes getting clean to a whole new level, however. Made without triclosan, parabens, and phthalates and infused with aloe vera, it leaves the hands clean and moisturized, unlike other brands that dry hands out.
Hand Sanitizer
But keeping your hands clean goes much beyond washing your hands for 20 seconds after you use the restroom. In fact, there’s a high chance the kids in your program will need to disinfect when there’s no sink in sight.
As a result, it’s best to have some hand sanitizer bottles readily available. The Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer has been specifically formulated to fight germs at twice the strength of other competing brands. In fact, just one pump of Purell kills germs just as effectively as two pumps of the major competitors. So, keeping Purell on hand is an effective option for stopping the spread of sickness in your program.
Disinfecting Wipes
Even when you have kids who wash their hands consistently, germs can congregate on surfaces people commonly touch. So, you need disinfecting wipes to use on often-used areas.
Your youth services program will likely go through a lot of disinfecting wipes. So, to save money, you might want to buy them in bulk. These Clorox Disinfecting Wipe packs contain 225 wipes, ensuring you’ll have them on hand for longer. The wipes kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses, and they prevent the growth of bacteria for up to 24 hours. Further, these wipes are all-purpose, so you can use them on any surface.
Snacks
While many children eat 2-3 meals a day, they actually should consume something every 2-3 hours. So, to keep everyone energized and healthy, your youth services program should have snacks ready.
Variety Box
When you run a youth program, you might find it a bit difficult to find snacks that everyone enjoys. So, if you want to avoid going out to buy snacks the kids won’t eat, consider getting a variety pack that mixes sweet and salty flavors.
The Keebler Sweet & Salty Variety Snacks Packs include 12 bags of 3 popular treats. Let the kids choose between Cheese Balls, Fudge Stripes, or Circus Animals, and be ready to see some truly happy kids!
Sandwich Crackers
If the kids in your program tend to have a salty tooth, let them indulge in the crunchy flavors of RITZ Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers! Each package contains 8 individual packs, each containing around 6 sandwich crackers, which feature 2 RITZ crackers slathered in smooth peanut butter!
Activities
Dodgeball Set
Do the kids in your program have a lot of energy? Let them burn off some of that energy and enjoy themselves at the same time with a dodgeball set! The pack comes with 6 balls, a pump, and a bag to carry it all in.
Mesh Equipment Bag
If you run a youth program, you probably have had your fair share of lugging equipment around. To make your job a tad bit easier, get a few of these mesh equipment bags to hold sports balls or other items you need to regularly carry! The bags also serve as a great storage solution.
Play-Doh
Want to encourage creativity and help kids build their imaginations? Play-Doh allows you to do just that! This pack comes with 28 cans of Play-Doh, including colors like red, green, orange, purple, blue, etc. It even features duplicates of some popular colors, so kids can share more easily and build whatever they want!
Washable Paints
Many kids love painting, and it’s a great, creative way to keep them engaged! However, anyone who’s been around paints knows they can be extra messy, especially when kids use them. If you want to keep your furniture looking nice, get washable paints for the kids in your program to use. That way, you just need to wipe up the area quickly if something spills!
With these youth services supplies, you’ll be more prepared to run an efficient and engaging youth program. Take a look at some of these summer activities if you want inspiration for things to do with the kids in your care!
