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Table of Contents Thanks to all of TJD's 2003-2004 Fair Share Congregations Paying Our Dues: An Expectation of Membership Thomas Jefferson District Communications Guide UUA General Assembly - June 24-28 - Long Beach, CA |
Lifespan REflections by Laurel Amabile, TJ Lifespan Program Consultant Teenagers have been on my mind lately. For one thing, I have a 17-year-old daughter, Nicole, living at home. Her life is busy; my life is busy, but we try to find time to do fun things together. The recent winter weather we've been having has resulted in school days off, and I've had a houseful of teens visiting, staging and filming video cooking demonstrations and talk shows in my kitchen, and advertisements in my living room. I'm amazed at their creativity, energy and initiative at organizing themselves. On the district and association level, we refer to our teenagers as "youth." We are fortunate to have a very active District Youth Steering Committee (DYSC) that represents a number of our congregations. This group plans several conferences a year for senior high youth around the district. Traditionally, the TJD Religious Education Committee has provided the organizational support to this group. I have been working this year to strengthen my relationship with the group, as part of my "lifespan" program consultant role. I have put my own "Vision for Youth Involvement in the TJ District" out in print for consideration and dialogue. It can be found on the district website (http://tjd.uua.org ). My vision would have youth involved at all levels of our congregations, districts and association. They would be fully engaged in partnership with supportive and empowering adults. The impetus for this comes from my work as part of a task force charged in January 2003 by the District Board to develop a set of safety guidelines. This task force is comprised of TJ Board, Staff, RE and DYSC representatives. Our year-long process has resulted in a set of proposed Child and Youth Protection Requirements, which, after a process of informing and receiving feedback from district congregations, professional and lay leadership, will be voted on and adopted in 2005. Be watching for a set of these protection requirements for your review and comment. I received a call yesterday from Don Skinner, editor of the popular Interconnections publication for UU lay leaders of congregations (www.uua.org/interconnections ). He called to ask me for names of congregations I may be aware of that have teenage youth actively involved in various aspects of congregation life beyond their youth groups. This might include youth members of governing boards or committees, actively engaged in the congregation's social justice efforts, involved in planning worship services, and serving in other leadership roles. I contacted several of our congregations with active youth programs and found many had great ways for youth to be involved. Perhaps when Don publishes his article, we will see one of these congregations and their youth leaders mentioned. In any event, we will be able to learn from Don's research some of the ways congregations have effectively engaged their youth in the broader ministries and governance of their organizations. I'd like to hear from you any ideas or experiences you have had with active teenage youth involvement in your congregations. I have some of my own ideas and experiences to share with you. I will be working to summarize and showcase some of these ideas, experiences of youth involvement, and interviews with youth and congregation leaders in the months to come. In Faith, |