Personal Progress Motivators for LDS Young Women
Ideas for YW Leaders to Involve Parents and Get Girls Excited About Personal Growth
Jun 18, 2009
The Personal Progress program of the Church of Latter-day Saints is organized around the eight Young Women values: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue. As each Young Woman works on her Personal Progress, she will be learning about her divine identity as a child of God, develop faith in Christ, strengthen her testimony, and prepare for temple blessings.
Completing the value experiences and projects associated with each value is infinitely worthwhile, but young women may remain unmotivated to even open their book. LDS Young Women's presidencies can try these suggestions on getting girls excited about personal progress.
Introduce Each New Young Woman and Parent to Personal Progress
Any time a new girl joins the Young Women program, whether by moving in or graduating from primary, she should be visited by the Young Women's presidency. Some presidencies like to visit the young woman and her mother at their home; others like to take them out for ice cream.
Whichever way one is approached, it's best to use the time not only to become familiar with the young woman but also to give her a personal progress book and explain the program's concept to the girl and her parents.
Involve Parents and Keep Them Updated
Parental involvement is probably the single most important factor in getting a Latter-day Saint young woman to work on her personal progress. Aside from introducing a girl and her mother to personal progress when she joins the Young Women organization, leaders can:
- Send quarterly personal progress tracking sheets to parents so they know how their daughter is doing. Include a suggestion on what steps they might want to take next.
- Challenge parents and young women to dedicate 30 minutes each Sunday to personal progress; this is a great way for mothers and daughters to spend time together and keep the Sabbath holy.
- Hold one or two mother-daughter mutuals a year, where daughters and moms can work on an experience together. Many value experiences require young women to talk to a parent.
- Create a monthly newsletter that suggests a value experience to work on or contains a personal progress message from the presidency.
- Post a monthly personal progress challenge on the bulletin board; everyone who completes it by the end of the month gets a small prize.
- Create worksheets on specific value experiences to guide young women through the necessary steps.
- Show parents how to access the personal progress booklet online through the LDS website.
- Invite parents to attend monthly personal progress interviews with their daughters.
Have Regular Personal Progress Mutual Nights
Wednesday night activities are a great time for young women to get a taste of personal progress. Picking out a value experience and working on it together can help them to see that it's not that hard to get started.
At the end of the night, each girl will have the satisfaction of knowing that she completed (or at least got started on) one value experience in her book.
Virtue 10-Hour Project: Read the Book of Mormon Together
Many Latter-day Saint young women groan about the mandatory virtue project of reading the entire Book of Mormon. But setting up a reading schedule can help the girls to start reading and stay on track.
Periodically, mutual activities might include reading together in keeping with the schedule. Seminary is studying the Book of Mormon in 2010, so following the seminary schedule would help girls complete a 10-hour project and get more out of seminary at the same time.
Drawing from the Personal Progress Jar
Decorate a simple jar and designate it as the class Personal Progress Jar. Each Sunday during opening exercises, have the girls put their names into the jar if they completed a project or value experience during the week.
After adding new names, draw one out to see who gets to choose a candy bar or other small item. The jar should be emptied monthly to encourage the girls to be continually working on personal progress.
Young Women versus Leaders on Personal Progress
Whether they've already received one or not, Latter-day Saint Young Women leaders are eligible to complete personal progress and earn their medallions (although the requirements for adults are much more lenient.) If the presidency and teachers can practice what they preach, it can motivate young women to do their personal progress tasks. They might enjoy monitoring their leaders' progress as posted in the Young Women's room and reminding them to keep working. Young women could even sign off on leaders' value experiences when completed.
"Drive By" Sunday Personal Progress Interviews
One Sunday per month, participants of the Young Women program should have a personal progress interview with a leader. They can use this brief interview to talk about the program, set goals, and review past progress. Personal progress interviews can be done on Sundays or during mutual, but if the ward's geographical boundaries are pretty small then "drive by" Sunday might be a fun variation.
After announcing drive by Sunday in church, leaders can divvy up the class roster, drive to each girl's house later that day, and honk in the driveway for the girl to come out for a quick personal progress interview in the car.
Motivating a Young Women to do her personal progress is a daunting task for any LDS Young Women's leader. Avoid spoonfeeding the girls (personal progress should stay personal), but try incorporating some of these ideas into the program for young women that need extra motivation.
Other resources for Latter-day Saints include "Beginning Food Storage: Building a Three-Month Reserve."
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