Game Nights

Objectives

• Build community
• Interpersonal bonding
• Hanging out and spending time together
• Encouraging team work
• Mix residents with people they don't usually spend time with

Summary
Game night is an awesome way to encourage residents to interact with one another in a team work capacity without having to get personal. You can arrange the teams yourself to put people who don't usually spend time together in the same team or you can just play as a whole house. Depending on what you are wanting to help build within your community to can pick any number of games. The key aspect of game night is your residents need to buy into the event otherwise it will be you and the same people who get involved in everything. Sometimes a reward or prize is incentive enough to get residents to attend.

House Hike/Walk

Objectives

• Get people outdoors
• See more of Acadia National Park
• Build Community
• Release endorphin
• Hang out casually

Summary
Hikes and walks are a great way to get residents out of the house, into fresh air and see more of the park. It's also a great way to get some exercise in and force residents to put away their phones, tablets and laptops. Ah, there's nothing like nature and conversation.

Conversation Traditions

Objectives

• Encourage conversation at house meals
• Sharing information without being too personal
• Updating others on your current life situations
• Positive thinking
• Low key resident check-in

Summary
These conversation traditions are a great way to encourage everyday in the house to have a voice. Everyone could have a turn or you could just let people volunteer. This allows residents to share information about themselves, their lives, what they see as important etc. without having to get too personal. By creating a tradition, you can also build conversation when things could get strained, weird or awkward. You can have things such as a a word of thanks - a thankful for _____ - peach, fuzz, bud - a good thing, a difficult thing, a thing you're looking forward to - or simply a good thing about the week. Another idea is to think about impact - who have you impacted someone positively this week?