The main areas of support to the adult leader are to help him or her to:
  • Understand how this association of teams is meant to function as a democratic system of self-government. The adult leader needs to be able to help the teams to build a consensus on what they want to achieve (making sure that the needs and interests of all are taken equally into account), and to help them to organise themselves;
  • Be able to enrich the young people’s ideas of what they want to do so as to provide opportunities for the young people to progress towards their educational objectives;
  • Observe and understand group dynamics and guide it in a constructive direction;
  • Be able to better judge what the young people are really capable of taking on by themselves. This means ensuring physical and emotional security (of the young people and others); being able to overcome the temptation to make life easier by organising everything oneself; not pushing the young people beyond what they can be reasonably be expected to undertake, etc.; 
  • Judge if and when to intervene, for example, in a conflict, or when to point out major obstacles, etc.