What's YES team up to, anyway? (and how does it involve me?)

YES has got some awesome projects in the works for the 2010-2011 year - check it out to see how you can be involved! The main ones are...

Congregational call-down: Over the past few weeks, YES members have been in the process of calling all the congregations in our district to make a connection to DREs, youth advisors, and youth. We especially wanted to find out what we could do to help congregations that have traditionally been less involved with PNWD youth programming take full advantage of all the opportunities at the district level.

How you can help: If there is something you would like to see the district do or improve regarding the needs of your congregation's youth group or program, talk to a YES member. We want to know how we can help, and it would be great to hear it directly from the youth, since we've mostly been talking to DREs and advisors on our calls.

Spirit Corps: This fall con, we'll be seeing some improvements to Spirit Corps, including a more active and defined role for process observers and color-coded energy maps to track how the atmosphere in the various "hang-out areas" changes over time. Sound cool? Come to con to see it in action.

How you can help: Sign up for Spirit Corps, of course! It's loads of fun, and you get to help strengthen the awesomeness that is the con community!

Social action project 1: In light of the UUA (national) focus on immigration justice and the recent decision to hold the UUA General Assembly 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona as a "Justice GA", we'd love to do an immigration-related, district-wide social action project; perhaps applying for UUA
grant money as needed. It would be a great way to build PNWD youth interest in attending GA 2012. We are presenting this idea to the University Unitarian Church youth group as an option for this year's SPAG theme, but if that doesn't work out, we'll look to other possibilities.

How you can help: Educate yourself on immigration issues (this piece by UUA President Peter Morales is an interesting place to start) and look into attending General Assembly. We'll let you know more ways you can help with this once we figure out what the project is going to look like.

Social action project 2: Our idea is that every youth group that wants to participate will organize a showing of The Laramie Project (a film about Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was killed in 1998 in Laramie, WY, a victim of hate crime) at their church. The movie showing would be a fundraiser for an appropriate charity (TBD) and would take place in February in honor of Valentine's Day and the right of all people to love whomever they choose, regardless of gender.

How you can help: Spread the word in your youth group and throughout the district and spearhead a showing in your congregation! We will soon be providing resources to help you start organizing.

This blog! We're planning to have two posts per month, one by a YES member and one by another PNWD youth.

How you can help: You're already contributing to the blog just by reading it (thank you). If you want to help even more, spread the word - tell your youth group, Facebook friends, parents, DREs, etc to check out pnwdyouth.blogspot.com. In addition, if you have an idea for a post, let us know!

Hope you all are having a great start to the school year, and I look forward to seeing you (or meeting you, if I haven't yet) at fall con!

In faith,
Sonrisa Alter
YES Co-chair

Back to School, Back to Youth Group

With September bearing down upon me, my life is revolving around back-to-school… and back to youth group. This will be my senior year of high school and I have to say that it hasn’t gotten any easier, though I’m coming to realize that this will be the last time I have to deal with the crazy stresses of coming back to high school. This will be my last first day of school (because obviously college doesn’t count), and my last year of youth group. While I’m excited to have my high school career finally be coming to an end, it’s going to be a bittersweet goodbye. I love my youth group and it is one of the few consistent things in my life. I know that every week I will go in on Sunday morning and there will be people who accept and welcome me for exactly who I am. So, knowing that this year will be my last to experience with this amazing group of people I want to make an impact, I want it to be meaningful.

Last year my youth group didn’t do a whole lot, and I have a feeling that it’s a pretty common thing within other youth groups as well. Now I’m not saying that just hanging out isn’t fun, it totally can be, but just hanging out week after week, not having much direction or purpose, can be boring. The inertia of a group can be deadly. So, my big goal this year is to really get my youth group doing things! I want to be able to take more away from my weekly meeting than “good meeting” or “nice to see everyone!” I want to carry my youth group in my heart all week and not just have it be an hour-long “thing” every Sunday. I want youth group to be a place where I feel lifted up, and school, along with all the other crap in my life, is forgotten about for a little while, because if I’ve learned anything it’s that it will all still be there once youth group is over.

The first step I’m taking towards accomplishing my goal is talking to my youth advisor about some sort of curriculum that will engage all the members of my group. It helps that I live with the DRE of my church (my mother), so I can talk to her at any time and see what she thinks might work or what she’s heard of as far as high school youth group curriculums. My youth advisor and I have talked about this some and are thinking about making something of our own up, which is both exciting and daunting. Mostly I just want my group to bond and feel a connection beyond being in the same room every Sunday. We share more than we might think, because I feel like we see more of our differences. We should be able to share our ideas and feelings and know that they’re not only heard but also respected and received with love.

So, with a goal in place, and a plan of action, I head into the new school year. Let’s hope that school doesn’t cause too much stress and I wish everyone a great start with back-to-school, back to youth group!

What’s your youth like? What’s the most memorable effort your youth group has made?

Rebecca Cloe
Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Washington County (Hillsboro, OR)