Each card has a brief scenario that includes a possible challenge, problem, or goal that a young person may encounter. You may review the scenarios in advance to make sure there is nothing that could be perceived as triggering or confusing to your Little. The second deck of cards includes people in our webs of support. Multiple relationships are included such as family members, coaches, teachers, friends, and more. Review the relationships and remove any that don’t apply to you or your Little. You may also add additional relationships that you know are particularly important for your Little. 

Lay all the relationship cards face up in a row. Lay all of the scenario cards face down in multiple columns. 

Tell your Little that you want to play a game to help identify who both of you might reach out to for support or help. Share that sometimes we may also prefer to not reach out to someone for help and that we may choose to try to solve problems on our own. This is okay and appropriate to do sometimes. Encourage them to think about different ways and types of support that people can provide. For example, people may not solve a particular problem for you but they may still be able to show you that they care about you. This is one way that they are providing support. Other times, people may provide information to you that is useful in helping you solve a problem. This is another type of support. Also, let your Little know that all the scenarios are hypothetical, but some of them they may have experienced in the past or are goals that they may actually have. Remind them that this is just for fun and so there are no right or wrong answers. 

You and your Little will take turns picking different scenarios. You can read the scenario and then match the card with the type of relationship that you would go to for help. Encourage your Little to share who they would go to and why. You might have them practice what they would say to that person if they were asking for help. You can make your Little feel comfortable by modeling first. Continue playing for as long as you both would like or until you run out of scenario cards. If there is ever a scenario card that your Little would like to skip, let them know that they can. 

After you’ve finished the game, discuss the following questions to reflect on the experience:

• What did you notice about the types of people you go to for support? Do you rely on some types of relationships more than others? Why do you think that may be?

• What role do you think your identity (whether it be your race, ethnicity, cultural background, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic background) influences who you go to for support?

• How easy or how difficult would it be to ask for support if you needed it? Would some scenarios be harder to get support with than others?

• What would you do if you didn’t know who to go to for help?

• Over time, you and your Little may add new cards to the deck. Encourage your Little to add different scenarios that they might run into. You might also have them add additional relationships that they have built as their web of support continues to grow. 

• You might return to this game again in the future. You and your Little can reflect on how who they go to in their web of support may change over time.