Consultation on Ministry to and With Youth
Update
Ministers and religious educators: There is a new discussion resource  available for chapter/regional meetings of religious professionals.
Current and former YRUU youth: An opportunity to share your reflections  on YRUU community in times of change. The deadline for submissions is February 1!
Calling all youth advisors! Please complete an online survey about your ministry with youth. This survey will be available online from December 1, 2006, through February 28, 2007. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this process.
Is your organization, committee, or group interested in contributing your visions for creating a more vibrant youth ministry? Download the Process Guide for Stakeholder Conversations on Ministry To and With Youth. The deadline for input is May 1, 2007.
District gatherings are happening in every UUA district between September 2006 and May 2007. Check out the Consultation calendar to find out when.
A Letter from the Co-Conveners
To the Unitarian Universalist community:
In October 2004 the UUA Board of Trustees empowered the two of us to co-convene a Convocation on Ministry to and With Youth. This Convocation would imagine and create a process to redefine and recommit to Unitarian Universalist youth ministry with the goal of making it a vibrant part of every congregation, district, and organization within the Association. The youth and adult attendees of the Convocation appointed a smaller Consultation Design Team to design the overall process for a denominational consultation on ministry to and with youth. In June 2005, we approved this process recommendation, and it was announced at General Assembly in Forth Worth, Texas.
Youth, ministers, religious educators, youth advisors, congregational leadership, district leadership, and organizational leadership all have a key role to play in ministry with youth, and in the process to strengthen this important ministry. Our goal is to provide resources and be as clear as possible about how all of these stakeholders can engage in the process. We hope that you will take time to explore this website, and contact Beth Dana or Jesse Jaeger in the Youth Office if you have questions.
We are excited about the transformation that will occur in the coming years through listening to the needs of youth and others doing ministry with our youth. We hope that you will participate, and generate interest within your community to participate as well.
In Faith,
Rev. Bill Sinkford and Megan Dowdell
What is the Consultation on Ministry to and With Youth?
The Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth is a two-year process to revision, renew and support our Association's ministry to and with youth. It will solicit the input and commitment of the widest possible spectrum of stakeholders in Unitarian Universalist youth ministry. Conversations within congregations, districts, and stakeholder organizations will focus on what they can do to support youth ministry at their level, and what the Association can do to support youth ministry as a whole. In this way, the process will build from the ideas and needs of youth and adults at the grassroots level.
These conversations about youth ministry will be an opportunity for youth, religious educators, ministers, youth advisors, lay leaders, and others doing ministry with youth to have their unique needs and visions listened to and discussed on all levels of the Association.
Goals and Desired Outcomes
In February 2005, thirty youth and adults from across the Association gathered to discuss the Association's ministry to and with youth. They identified five focus areas (desired outcomes), listed the stakeholders, and made suggestions for moving forward in each of the five areas. Based on the lessons learned in the process so far, in the summer of 2006 the Task Force on Ministry To and With Youth added to the desired outcomes to better reflect the areas where our youth ministry can grow and strengthen.
The desired outcomes of the process are:
- More than just a one-size-fits-all youth ministry—a youth ministry that is robust, flexible, and diverse
- Denominational youth work that focuses on serving local congregations
- Mutually respectful and empowering relationships between youth and adults
- Anti-racism and anti-oppression work infused within every part of youth ministry, with a recognition that there is not one "right" way of doing the work—providing a forum for youth identity development and institutional change
- A youth ministry the meets the spiritual needs of youth and increases the spiritual depth of our congregations
- Effective communication within, between, and among all areas of the Association.
This project is funded in part by the Fund for Unitarian Universalism.
| 
