02 July 2008

YAYA Empowerment Resolution Passes at GA!

2008 was a powerful General Assembly of the UUA for youth and for Young Adult ministry in general. The one and only business resolution on the floor of plenary, co-written by Victoria Mitchell, Youth Representative from Eliot Chapel, and Kimberlee Tomczak, Youth and Young Adult Coordinator for the Central Midwest dealt directly with our commitment to youth and young adult ministries at every level of our association. This resolution passed unanimously at the CMWD District Annual Assembly.


After a lively debate that included statements from Denny Davidoff, the Reverend Daniel O’Connell, CYF delegate Jonathan Craig and the whole of the youth and young adult steering committees, the resolution passed overwhelmingly, affirming our congregations’ support of ministry to these two essential populations.

Watch the video of the Plenary III discussion here >>>
(discussion starts at 00:58:00)

But more important perhaps than even the passing of the business resolution was the opportunity that its passing provided to create and debate responsive resolutions about how the UUA and its member congregations put the spirit of the resolution into practice.

The first responsive resolution reads as follows:

RESPONSIVE RESOLUTION: Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution Accountability

WHEREAS the Moderator in her report referenced the “Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution” Business Resolution passed by the 2008 General Assembly on Friday, June 27, 2008, which “…urges the Unitarian Universalist Association, its congregations and district structures to:

1. Invite ministerial support to youth and young adults through inclusive worship and intentional presence; and
2. Invest financial support in youth and young adult leadership bodies and programs when viable; and
3. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources, including self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings; and
4. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the district and associational levels.”

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 2008 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association:

• requests each member congregation; each district; the UUA Administration including specifically the Offices of Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministries, and Youth Ministry Working Group; the UUA Board of Trustees; the Nominating Committee; the Ministerial Fellowship Committee; and the General Assembly Planning Committee to report back annually for the next three years (2009, 2010, 2011) on their planning, implementation, results and recommendations on each point 1-4 in the above-referenced “Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution”;
• invites the participation of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and other professional associations; and
• requests the UUA Administration create a reporting mechanism for all these stakeholders, inform them accordingly, collect their reports and present a consolidated report to the General Assembly plenary in each of the next three years.


The second responsive resolution reads as follows:

RESPONSIVE RESOLUTION: Youth and Young Adult Consultation on Ministry


WHEREAS the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth has presented a positive report with regard to the future of youth ministry throughout the Association, and

WHEREAS the 2008 General Assembly has expressed its support for youth and young adult ministry through passage of the “Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution” Business Resolution;

And WHEREAS using grassroots, bottom-up processes involving stakeholders, accountability and collaborative consultations such as future search, open space, and / or appreciative inquiry, a consultative process could engage the Association on young adult ministries led by young adults and their allies,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 2008 General Assembly endorses and voices its support for the continued work of the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the 2008 General Assembly encourages the Unitarian Universalist Association to consider engaging a Consultation with regard to Young Adult Ministries.


Watch video of the two responsive resolution discussion at Plenary VI here >>>

(discussion starts at 01:33:40)


At the closing ceremonies, both UUA President Rev. Bill Sinkford and UUA Moderator Gini Courter spoke about young adult ministry as a priority for the UUA as set forth by this General Assembly. The CYF and young adult ministry was on everyone's lips as they left Ft. Lauderdale and we have yet again affirmed our importance to the larger UU movement.

Watch video of the closing ceremonies and Bill and Gini's speeches here >>>

Written by Erik D. Carlson, delegate report to the CYF.

27 May 2008

Update of Past Events (Part Two)

It's puzzling how rapidly time slips away after so many landmarks, milestones, conversations, and events to the point where Kimberlee and I realized that we have not adequately recorded the history of the past one and a half months. So here are the leftover pieces:

This resolution actually began as an idea that seemed most applicable to the Central Midwest District, both of our current bases. Although the prospect quickly mushroomed, we didn't lose our grip on getting this resolution to the Central Midwest District Assembly. Through the contacts of Rev. Daniel O'Connell, CMWD Board of Trustees President, and Dori Davenport, CMWD Faith Development and Growth Director, we went through a very similar process as on the national level to get our resolution on the agenda. The Board of Trustees voted to have it presented at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 26th.

Last year I briefly attended District Assembly for the CMWD Youth Consultation. This year though, the Assembly was in St. Louis and I attended the entire event. The theme of our District Assembly was the 21st Century; however, the unofficial sub-theme could easily be agreed upon as Youth and Young Adults.

The first event Saturday morning was a panel of ministers and religious professionals, each who spoke for a few minutes about accomplishments or reasons for their congregational growth or something distinct about their congregation. Two of the six spoke entirely about youth and intergenerational ministry and many others touched on the subject. Then, there was a question and answer session and I was overwhelmed (in a positive way) by how much people wanted to talk about it! Then, our keynote speaker Rev. Michael Tino gave a presentation on worship and, again, there was a lot of attention drawn to youth and young adults!

People I approached about the resolution were intrigued, asked questions, and responded to mine. I prepared a speech for the Annual Meeting which explained the concept of the resolution, why conscious youth and young adult ministry is vital and important, and included a personal anecdote about the effects. I also spoke about how much the Central Midwest District is doing right regarding youth and young adult ministry and activities and why we should and can strive to more. There seemed to be a general agreement and understanding that this is a priority in our district and the results definitely reflected that. The vote was called and the resolution passed unanimously!

Afterward, I attended a workshop on Youth Ministry which was led by Rev. O'Connell and Rev. Krista Taves of Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapel here in St. Louis. I wanted to see what information they presented, who attended the workshop, and answer any questions anyone may have (that I could answer) about larger initiatives involving youth ministry. The folks there were awesome and after both reverends had presented, it became an informative question and answer session. Rev. Taves even created this incredible resource (including “What We Know” about youth ministry and details about the program and relationship she has created with youth at her congregation) that was impressively insightful.

Then, I went to a workshop led by Rev. Tino about creative worship and, again, youth and young adult (in this case worship styles) entered the conversation frequently. The Young Adult worship entitled 'Everything Flows, Nothing Stands Still' was on Saturday evening and illustrated all of the components of a contemporary, fulfilling worship that were presented during the keynote. Finally, the winner of our district sermon contest, Tracey Howe-Koch (a woman from my home congregation) read a sermon that included much conviction about the need for increased attention on RE, youth, and young adult ministry during Sunday's final worship service. Kimberlee and I walked out and literally gawked at each other in amazement.

In the Central Midwest District, youth and young adults were the underlying agenda item in nearly every event I attended and were affirmed by the Central Midwest District when it passed the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution.

Now, I am preparing for General Assembly mentally, spiritually, and literally (it especially helps now that I am finished with high school). I have never attended GA before so it will be a bombardment of new faces, information, and experiences. Excited is to put it simply…my emotions regarding this (the past, the resolution, the time and effort, Friday’s plenary session, being a delegate, Youth Caucus, GA in general) are difficult to convey. However, I can confidently say that I can’t wait until it and I arrive!

With Peace, Love, and Thanks,

Victoria Mitchell

YAYA Resolution Journey

Early on, one of the first things that Victoria and I had to decide as a team was how to deal with the myriad of criticism on and about our attempts to craft a resolution. I think it is always a bit shocking when you are trying to do something positive to discover a crowd of critics. Yet to do something this large and perhaps offbeat, a bit bold, that you believe in, maybe naively, invites in the full spectrum of dialogue and debate. I do believe this conflict can be good and healthy, yet difficult to plot a route through toward a goal and we quickly agreed that we did not have the time or energy to commit to responding to all.

I feel the need to say that both Victoria and I have worked in our congregations, communities, campuses, district and continent for many years in doing work as staff, committee members and volunteers to grow and support youth and young adult ministry; yet we are naïve to many of the larger politically processes we are attempting to navigate. Here is a scary fact, over eighty percent of Unitarian Universalist youth leave our faith and never return. We wrote this resolution as a response to a difficult transition period for youth and young adult ministry. We did this because we felt that there was a need to articulate some clear values in how and why this ministry can be supported, is vital and necessary in our Unitarian Universalist faith. In this time of transition, it is necessary to focus on what we know works and what we do agree on. If we are to make some positive steps and changes in our attitudes and practices in youth and young adult ministry it will require a culture shift if how we think and invest in this ministry. It is critical that we do this work now, every day we spend navel-gazing on what ideal youth and young adult ministry is we lose our people; it is the time to do. This resolution will not make this change, it is a institutional response to a larger issue, but is it a piece of the puzzle and perhaps if the plenary body can leave thinking and knowing more about youth and young adult ministry it can serve in making a positive change and action.

On a visit to New Orleans , I had the privilege of meeting Gini Courter at the 175 anniversary of UU’s in the city. She had received our first draft of the resolution via e-mail and we spoke about the concerns of it being a responsive resolution. Responsive resolutions are at the end of plenary and receive little to no attention or debate. Gini was interested in bringing this resolution to the board and we arranged through e-mail to hold a conference call with board members Paul Richter, Lyn Conley, Justine Urbikas, Gini Courter and Victoria and me. During our call, it became clear that there was an interest in presenting the resolution to the UUA board of Trustees approval as a full business resolution. Yikes and Hurray! We discussed some concerns and ideas about the resolution, and agreed to contact members of the youth transition working group and other stakeholders such as DRUUMM, Diverse Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministry to receive feedback on the resolution.

Also, as the adult advisor on the YRUU steering committee, I submitted and reviewed the resolution with the YRUU SC and was pleased to receive their full support of the resolution. We submitted a final draft to the UUA board and anxiously awaited the board meeting.

Well it passed! The board voted for it to be a full business resolution and unanimously supported the resolution. You can read the details in the UU World article, http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/107505.shtml.

So we will see you at GA! Hoping for a good debate and now I am back to end of planning the school year lessons, a large Keith Haring inspired mural, CMWD Spring Young Adult Conference (Check out http://cmwd-uuyan.org ), CMWD Youth Council and YA Regional Radius Conference.

Blessings,
Kimberlee

19 March 2008

Super-Edited Resolution for YAYA Empowerment

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

WHEREAS the Unitarian Universalist Association Bylaws state that our Association promotes "the full participation of persons in all of its and their activities and in the full range of human endeavor without regard to . . . age"; and

WHEREAS statement #12, “Support, Integrate, and Retain youth and young adults to keep our congregations vibrant and growing” in the Open Space Technology Process at General Assembly 2007 received the largest number of votes, 773 votes (representing 12.4 % of the votes cast); and

WHEREAS the future of our denomination benefits from the full participation of youth and young adults to enliven, grow and sustain our Unitarian Universalist movement, principles and ideals, including the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large; and

WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create intergenerational equity; and

WHEREAS unique opportunities at the congregational, district and continental level for youth and young adult self-direction create synergy for a larger youth and young adult identity and promote communication and connections between local youth and young adults across the continent;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 2008 ____________ District Assembly / General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges the Unitarian Universalist Association, its congregations and district structures to:
1. Invite ministerial support to youth and young adults through inclusive worship and intentional presence; and
2. Invest financial support in youth and young adult leadership bodies and programs when viable; and
3. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources, including self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings; and
4. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the district and continental levels.

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We'd like to thank the following people for contributing edits and feedback regarding this most recent (Super-Edited and Condensed) version of the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment resolution and the resolution in general:

Alexis Blackman, Cat Lyons, Claire Sexton, Rev. Daniel O'Connell, Danny Maitland, Devin Murphy, Donald Wilson, Edward Wilkinson, Elandria Williams, Eliza Hens-Greco, Ellen Carvill, Ellen Zemlin, Erik David Carlson, Flo Dickerson, George Brown, Hazel Gabe, Heather Godbout, Jan Taddeo, Jonathan Craig, Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, Rev. Julie-Ann Silberman-Bunn, Justine Urbikas, Kasey Neiss, Kathryn Wiley, Kenneth Sime, Laura Spencer, LinZ Simon, Lucinda Robinson, Lyn Cox, Mary Manchester, Meredith Lukow, Rev. Michael Tino, Nick Allen, Tsuki Naka, Tristen Wolfe, Will Floyd.

We'd like to give a special thanks to Wayne Arnason for this new Super-Edited version. :)
If we missed your name, we are so sorry so please let us know and we will fix it!

Blessings,

Victoria and Kimberlee

07 March 2008

Letter to Youth and Young Adults

Salutations Youth and Young Adults!,

Have you found the news about youth and young adult ministry frustrating? Do you want to do something to make our voices heard? We have decided to go political and are trying to use the democratic process inherent in our faith to affect wide-spread, positive change. After talking with many youth and young adults from across the continent, we have written a resolution for Youth and Young Adult Empowerment within all levels of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
We believe that in this transitional time the critical values and voices of youth and young adults must be represented in the political process of our denomination. This resolution does not attempt to restructure continental YRUU or C*UUYAN; it attempts to reaffirm the values that we all share and promote them at every level of our faith.

This resolution is meant for everyone. We are from the Central Midwest District and plan to take steps to have this resolution passed in our district. You can do this in your district! In the Central Midwest District, this means communicating and gathering support from youth and young adults in congregations and determining the appropriate steps to get the resolution on our District Annual Assembly’s agenda in April. We also have been communicating with our UUA Trustee, District staff, and youth and young adults on district leadership bodies (i.e. District Youth Steering Committee/Youth Adult Committee and Young Adult Steering Committee).

This is a grassroots initiative and we encourage you to start or contribute to a similar movement in your district. Through our conversations, we have been attaining allies of this resolution in many districts. These folks will be leading and guiding the process for having this resolution passed at your District Annual Assembly in April or May. If you would like any information regarding initiatives already blossoming in your district or guidance on how to begin the process yourself, please contact us!

There is also the possibility for this resolution to be presented and passed at this year’s General Assembly as a responsive resolution. We are currently in dialogue with the UUA Board of Trustees about this resolution. Due to all of these recent changes, General Assembly will be a challenging time for youth and young adult issues. Regardless, having districts affirm youth and young adult empowerment is vital.

We must use the synergy inherent in youth and young adult movements to fuel us, to encourage us, and to be the change we want to see happen in our faith. We must collectively take action to protect and promote the core values of ministry to and with youth and young adults.

Let’s make youth and young adult empowerment a reality.
Only you can make this happen!
We desire your feedback, questions, concerns, opinions, and support of this resolution.

Thank you and Blessings,

Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution

WHEREAS youth and youth adults in the past have been visionaries for our denomination, youth and young adult leaders were a key component of bringing Unitarians and Universalists together in the merger of 1961 and the subsequent creation of the Unitarian Universalist Association; and

WHEREAS statement #12, “Support, Integrate, and Retain youth and young adults to keep our congregations vibrant and growing” in the Open Space Technology Process at General Assembly 2007 received the largest number of votes, 773 votes (representing 12.4 % of the votes cast); and

WHEREAS the future of our denomination benefits from the full participation of youth and young adults to enliven, grow and sustain our Unitarian Universalist movement, principles and ideals, including the use of the democratic process within our congregations and society at large; and

WHEREAS the Unitarian Universalist Association Bylaws state that our Association promotes "the full participation of persons in all of its and their activities and in the full range of human endeavor without regard to . . . age"; and

WHEREAS Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create intergenerational equity; and

WHEREAS if youth and young adult empowerment is to be a reachable goal in our Association, it is necessary for there to be support in providing unique opportunities at the congregational, district and continental level for youth and young adult self-direction and for youth and young adults to be active, full members of our denomination; and

WHEREAS youth and young adult involvement at the district and continental level create synergy for a larger youth and young adult identity and promote communication and connections between local youth and young adults across the continent; and

WHEREAS the current members of the 2008 DRUUMM YAYA Steering Committee, YRUU Steering Committee and C*UUYAN Steering Committee supports making changes toward the goal of congregationally focused youth and young adult ministry and multi-generational congregations; (Pending these Steering Committees official approval)

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Unitarian Universalists call for a commitment to support youth and young adult empowerment through the activities and attitudes of all levels of the Unitarian Universalist Association, including congregations, districts and continental institutions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the 2008 ____________ District Assembly / General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges all Unitarian Universalist congregations to:
1. Annually assess how youth and young adults are or are not supported in worship and congregational settings; and
2. Provide ministerial support to youth and young adults through intentional guidance, presence, devotion and time; and
3. Invest financial support in youth and young adult initiatives when viable; and
4. Provide support for youth and young adult staff and volunteers to receive suitable training and resources; and
5. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities by providing resources and opportunities within the congregation and at the district and continental levels; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the 2008 ____________ District Assembly / General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges all Unitarian Universalist districts to:
1. Allot specific staff support for youth and young adult constituents and their congregations; and
2. Allow for an authentic youth and young adult voice by having youth and young adult district leadership bodies; and
3. Invest financial support in youth and young adult district leadership bodies; and
4. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences and leadership development events on the district level; and
5. Attend to the needs of youth and young adult constituents with marginalized identities and their congregations by providing resources and opportunities within the district and continental level; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the 2008 ____________ District Assembly / General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges all Unitarian Universalist continental institutions to:
1. Invest financial support in youth and young adult programs, initiatives and staff; and
2. Provide accessible resources for youth and young adult constituents at the district and congregational level; and
3. Provide accessible resources for youth and young adult constituents, especially marginalized identities, who are currently not supported at the district and congregational level; and
4. Provide and promote youth and young adult conferences and leadership development events on the continental level; and
5. Allow for an authentic youth and young adult voice by having youth and young adult continental leadership bodies; and
6. Support youth and young adult self-directed anti-racism and anti-oppression trainings.


Written by Victoria Mitchell and Kimberlee Tomczak.

29 February 2008

Victoria Mitchell - "History never looks like history when you're living through it."

For the first time, I truly and fully believe that one person CAN make a difference.
Because it's happening to/with/in me.

I've always been so intrigued by grassroots action. At one point, everyone at the top was a part of the roots. It is clear that in YRUU, the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the fruit were all in various stages of decay. I feel as though perhaps we have forgotten our soil and allowed our water source to be contaminated. And this Resolution for Youth and Young Adult Empowerment is reminding us of the values we are grounded in. We need to thicken the soil so that our tree does not fall but is instead experiences rebirth. The season of YRUU has passed and we must be invigorated for new, positive change that empowers the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the fruit to all take part.
Perhaps the name of our tree won't change, but some things definitely must be. And if that involves a bit of pruning, I am willing to accept the removal of the dead parts that are not serving this living, breathing structure. However, the memories and the lessons should not be buried in the hollows of a landfill, unable to decompose and serve this planet.
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I was one of the first to receive the YRUU Steering Committee's letter on February 11th and to visit the YRUU UUlogy website by the chance of me checking my email at the right time.

I've been keeping up with the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth process over the past few years, starting as a dim interest and since escalating tremendously. I took the survey on how I was being served in my new congregation - Eliot Unitarian Chapel in St. Louis Missouri. I was previously involved in middle school at Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church in Memphis, Tennessee and attended a Unitarian Universalist congregation for the first time at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver in British Columbia, my home town. I've been involved in my congregation's youth group by discussing, organising, creating worships, doing social justice work, being a primary planner for UnCONventional in March 07, and participating in the annual youth service.
When I was elected as the Youth Council Representative on my District Youth Steering Committee last March, I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into, except for the encouragement I received from my predecessor to the position and friend, Emily Brunts. In April I drove myself five hours to Chicago and back for the three-hour District Gathering at Annual District Assembly. I was one of only three youth to attend and we were all on the District Youth Steering Committee.
I attended Youth Council and my horizons were positively pushed further in both directions. I began anti-racism and anti-oppression analysis and have been continuing to do so by doing personal journaling, talking to folks, taking an African American Literature class at my school, being an active member of my school's Social Justice Committee, and through the recent Groundwork training my district hosted for youth and young adults in January. I became acutely aware of the Consultation process and was introduced to the Summit goals. I participated in Youth Council's discussion of the YRUU Question and was a part of the small committee who pieced together information and wrote the "Youth Council Reponse to the YRUU Question." I pretty much thrust myself into continental YRUU.
I've learned that I am quite rare- I am a youth involved on a congregational, district, and continental level and I moved in that order.
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When I first received the news about the UUA cutting funds to YRUU and C*UUYAN, I was upset and super confused. Okay, so the storm was coming and if you were to draw out a time line of events leading up to this and examine the resources on the Consultation website, you could definitely see it. I guess for me, because I only recently became active continentally, I didn't expect it because I had no sense of time and progression. It just felt so fast. And the miscommunication about how the Board of Trustees must first approve this budget cut definitely did not allow for these announcements to proceed in a logical manner.
I have struggled with how the existing structure is threatened to disappear before any plan has been unveiled. The Youth Ministry Working Group should not be expected "to solidify a plan of action" when they've only just begun their work. The goals proclaimed by the Summit report are incredible and if achieved will make our institution a beautiful pathway for successive generations of Young Religious Unitarian Universalists to walk on hopefully through adulthood. But these goals will not be achieved to their fullest potential if rushed. I also believe that if we are going to strengthen youth ministry, we must also strengthen young adult ministry. All youth will become young adults, whether they identify as a Unitarian Universalist young adult or not. Perhaps having an incredible experience in youth ministry and programs is enough to keep up one's motivation through the period of young adulthood, which is not a strong presence or adequately supported in many places within our faith. I don't know. I haven't reached that point in my life yet. But if this institution plans on empowering youth, it should also plan on empowering young adults.
The best definition of youth and young adult empowerment that Kimberlee Tomczak and I could find and mold to fit Unitarian Universalists is:

Youth and Young Adult empowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people to create intergenerational equity.
After the announcements and continual flow thereafter, I refrained from publicly posting my opinion on the matter. I was processing still. I was trying to figure out the whole situation and was reading the opinions of other folks in order to gain a sense of the history. I was experiencing a whole range of emotions.. especially because I had only just tapped into something that was serving me. It took me a while to find it, but when I eventually did, I loved it. I love it. However, it is selfish for me to say that Continental YRUU should not be changed just because it was serving me. I saw first-hand, through writing the Youth Council Response to the YRUU Question, that Continental YRUU does not serve so, so, so many youth. It can do better. We can do better. And I knew I could do better than sitting on my emotions and not doing anything about them.
So I gave myself a day to process. On Wednesday, I called my congregation's minister, Rev. Daniel O'Connell. This year my congregation has changed in how we do youth ministry. As often as possible, Rev. Daniel spends the first twenty minutes of our youth group time with us. Because of this, I have gotten to know him much more than I ever would have and felt comfortable talking to him about everything going on. We discussed the issues and I presented that I really, really, really just wanted to do something about this! He suggested political action. And the idea to write a resolution was born. If it weren't for his support, advice, and empowering practices, none of this would have happened.
I ran with it. I called Kimberlee Tomczak, the Youth and Young Adult Coordinator for my district.
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We've been friends ever since I often frantically contacted her as I was attempting to organise a youth conference at my congregation. Remembering those weeks reaffirms for me that in order for youth to succeed on a district level, there must be someone on district staff with youth in their job portfolio. Without her, I probably would have managed to implode the week before Con. I've been on DYSC since then so we've kept in regular communication and became even closer when we both attended Youth Council this summer. It has become so apparent throughout the DYSC year that if both of us hadn't attended Youth Council, then a lot of the new ideas that have been introduced would have never taken off. Throughout Youth Council, Kimberlee and I would take ideas we gathered from Youth Council and discuss how we could implement them in our district. If it had been just me, to my fellow DYSC members, it would seem like some illusionary thing condensed into a report that one member of the group went off to for a week. I might have had some valuable communication with folks from other districts experiencing similar predicaments or attempting similar initiatives, but it's so difficult for one person in a high turnover position to articulate these ideas and make them applicable enough to fly in a district. That is, it is difficult without someone whose job it is to empower youth to make these changes along for the ride. Youth Council was productively valuable for me because I had someone to bounce ideas off of who would support me when I introduced it to my leadership body. The connection between our district youth leadership and the continental level was successful. But I have learned that this is also quite rare. It almost didn't happen for us...Kimberlee called me literally the day before and told me she had been accepted to go because someone else was unable to attend.
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I called Kimberlee the next day and we entered into a huge discussion about.. everything. I told her about me writing a resolution in order to assert the values that all levels and people of the Unitarian Universalist Association should be rooted in and what, no matter what happens, should emerge from this Consultation process. Youth empowerment. This quickly expanded to youth and young adult empowerment for the way, way above stated reasons. I told her about the plan: Have this resolution passed at district annual assemblies in the next few months and then somehow get it to General Assembly. A process entirely unknown to me. I've never been to GA. I've never written a resolution. I've never been to anything at District Assembly except for the District Gathering for the Consultation process last April. I was unsure but sure that I wanted to do something. I'm still gaining my footing. But we had to start somewhere, right? So we started trekking through our thoughts. What would this resolution say? How should we go about doing this? Is this even attainable? I took the ideas we discussed and articulated them by writing a preliminary draft on Friday. I examined resolutions on the UUA website to get a handle on the formula and format of a resolution. And I pretty much winged it. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty okay for a first-timer.
Process-wise, we started with accountability. This is something we feel has been lacking in many actions up until the YRUU Steering Committee's letter. So we figured, well...we're sure as hell going to be accountable. So the plan for that weekend was you call your peers and I'll call mine. I contacted youth who were at Youth Council and asked if we could have a telephone conversation. I tried about twenty five people and had conversations with about ten of those people before Kimberlee and I discussed again that Sunday night. I presented our ideas to these people, told them about the idea of a resolution for youth and young adult empowerment, and the pretty vague plan at that point. I received nothing but support and positive feedback for the idea. All of this communication was kept confidential while Kimberlee and I determined if writing a resolution was even the right step to take. When we spoke again, we had both unanimously determined that it was.
Next, we dissected our ideas further and worked through the first draft of the resolution. We made changes. Then we sent it to a limited number of people to get initial feedback. There was clearly some work to be done. We needed to have the whole document logically flow as one sentence and there were some breaks in that flow and some unnecessary points. We also needed to make our THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED something specific and measurable. We made some progress on determining this but more or less took the weekend to rest for a bit from all of this. On this past Monday (..wow, that feels like ages ago), we really tried to hammer out what support of youth empowerment looks like.
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Our goal was and is not to determine the concrete structure of youth ministry for the future. That's not our job, it's the Youth Ministry Working Group's job. Our goal was and is to determine what youth and young adult empowering practices are and assert those in a public document. By this time, the news about the miscommunication had been out for a while. But in only a week, I was already at peace with the fact that contiental YRUU would be over as of June 30th. I still am. Resurrecting the past will not do us any good and will only perpetuate cracks within youth, young adult, and adult relationships. We must move forward. But we must move forward with youth and young adult empowerment embedded within every Summit goal and every action of the Working Group.
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During our Monday conversation, we both agreed to split up the resolution and work to make those parts correspond to our more refined ideas and our first round of feedback. Kimberlee worked on the preamble, or the WHEREAS's and I worked on the THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT. I pretty much rewrote the entire thing because before, our therefore be it resolved was not specific. It was powerfully worded, but not an attainable, measurable goal. So I went through all of the notes from Kimberlee's and my discussions. Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely five hour conversation and came up with the working draft of the resolution. Huzzah! We then quickly sent it to approximately the same original feedback group and amazingly, were only suggested to make two changes. And they were both wordsmith-y errors.
So the last of those feedback conversations were this afternoon. Kimberlee and I set to work writing a letter to Youth and Young Adult Stakeholders and Leaders, primarily of the continental level. And tonight we emailed it out. Our letter and the Youth and Young Adult Empowerment Resolution.
We asked for this resolution to remain confidential, but we're assuming it will leak sometime over the weekend. We 'wooshed' each time one of us sent it out to some listserv or person.
All I have to say is...holy shit.
I'm experiencing elation, excitement, and uncertainty.
I want to check my email so bad but I promised myself I'd start and finish an essay due tomorrow as motivation (my school work has unfortunately but inevitably taken a back seat these past two weeks).
I want to see what people think. I want comments. I want opinions.
It's fair to say that the lack of criticism in the past 24 hours of feedback has made me a bit confident that somehow we have managed to do it.
However, the point of sending this to stakeholders is to make sure that this resolution is correct and that we have correctly represented those we intend to represent in this resolution - youth --and young adults. Only time and my inbox will tell me.
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What I am currently experiencing the most though is the realization that one person can make a difference. I'm primarily agnostic - spiritually and when I examine an abstract concept. I've always struggled with being the change you want to see in the world. How much of a difference does that actually make? Our youth service one Sunday ago was on that topic and I read a homily that I wrote (and actually re-wrote the entire thing at 1am the night before). I primarily focused on injustice with the example of heterosexism, but I also discussed how one must do more than just change oneself. I wrote, "I must be the change, dig channels for the change to carry, and then hopefully, see the change blossoming in this world." I can't just be thankful that my minister, my advisors, and my district staff youth coordinator have empowered me. If I want youth empowerment, I have to fight for this for youth in my district who are not empowered in their congregations. I have to fight for this for youth in congregations and in districts that I have little or no contact with at all. For youth who I've never even met. And I have to fight for a recognition of this from adult leaders on all levels of our association. I will very soon be asking for support from youth and young adults across this continent. We must initiate this change. Youth and young adult empowerment cannot be a top-down initiative. It needs to be youth and young adults in congregations, on the district level, and on the continental level asking for this. In Wayne Arnason and Rebecca Scott's book "We Would Be One," Maria Flemming states, "...when we talk about youth autonomy now; we mean basically the right for youth to determine their own programs. This means that we think no one knows better what young people are interested in than young people themselves" (XII). I hope that when Kimberlee and I send this document out to youth and young adults anywhere and everywhere, that this is what young people are interested in.
If this is what we want, we have to do it ourselves. And we need the support of adults.

I am one. And it is my sincerest hope that my efforts make a difference.

Peace and love,


-Victoria Mitchell


"History never looks like history when you are living through it." ~John W. Gardner

15 February 2008

Victoria Mitchell - Yes We Can!

So: news on continental YRUU saddens me. But ya know what? I'm doing something about it. And it feels incredible. Empowering.

The next few days will be wrought with communication and accountability.


Then the next few days after that will hopefully amass in an insurmountable declaration.


Much peace and love,

-Victoria