Meet the Office of Youth Ministries
Sara Eskrich—Youth Ministry Associate (YMA)seskrich @ uua.org (617) 948-4352
Hi Everyone! My name is Sara Eskrich and I'm a Youth Ministry Associate in the Office of Youth Ministry. I'm excited to be taking a year off from school at the University of Wisconsin to work with you all.
My main work in the office is going to be centered around:
- Implementation of the Summit on Youth Ministry
- YRUU Leadership Support: Supporting YRUU Steering Committee, Youth Council, and doing our best to be accountable to youth in our denomination
- Supporting Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression and Social Justice work
Outside of my job I enjoy staying active by training for triathlons and traveling. I also love politics, spicy food, and chocolate!
Please contact me with any questions, ideas, or needs. I'm here to work for
you!
India McKnight—Youth Ministry Associate (YMA)
imcknight @ uua.org (617) 948-4351
Heyyy! I'm India Danielle McKnight, the Youth Ministry Associate for 2007-2008. I'm 20 yrs young and was born raised in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD. I attended the youth group at Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring and worked as an R.E. assistant at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church. For the past two years I've been involved in DRUUMM and their Youth and Young Adult Steering Committee.
This past year I lived in Durham, NC, where I was in an Americorp program called Public Allies. In Public Allies, I was placed at the Alliance of AIDS Services, a non profit in the area that assisted clients with food, housing and utility services, transportation, and medication. Two other components of Public Allies were educational trainings and an end of the year community service project.
In my position this year, I will be responsible for supporting General Assembly Youth Caucus, the Chrysalis Training Program and working with the DRUUMM YAYA SC (Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries Youth and Young Adult Steering Committee).
GA Youth Caucus is Youth focused programming at General Assembly, this is organized by a small body of youth that work together throughout the year to plan Youth programming and activities, such as (Anti Racism, Anti Oppression trainings and Identity groups, Worship, Night Time Entertainment, Community Building, and providing emotional support with Youth and Adult Chaplains). My role at GA will be that of providing logistical support for the leadership body.
The Chrysalis Training Program is a program offered by the Youth Office, in which five trainings are offered by request to congregations and districts in the U.S. and Canada. The trainings are administered by a paired youth and adult training team selected from a well trained body of continental trainers and facilitators. The trainings offered are the Leadership Development Conference, Spiritual Development Conference, Basic and Advanced Advisor trainings and the Chaplain training.
This year I will also work with the DRUUMM YAYA SC (Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries Youth and Young Adult Steering Committee). DRUUMM YAYA is the youth and young adult contingent to the continental organization DRUUMM. Both organizations work towards developing a sustainable, comprehensive ministry and identity development for People of Color in Unitarian Universalism.
When you're at the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), stop by my office, I love to laugh, listen to tunes, read and just kick it!
Darrick Jackson—Assistant Youth Ministries Director
djackson @ uua.org (617) 948-4356
The Assistant Youth Ministries Director assists the
Youth Ministries Director in working with youth and adults to develop and
support ministry with youth. My main tasks are:
- Supervise the Youth Ministry Associates
- Oversee Continental Youth Program events such as GA Youth Caucus
- Consulting with congregations, districts, religious professionals, youth advisor, parents and youth.
- Oversee the office while Jesse is on sabbatical.
jjaeger @ uua.org (617) 948-4359
The Youth Ministries Director's primary responsibility is to support youth ministry at all levels through out the Unitarian Universalist Association. I do this by working with youth ages 14 to 20 and the adults who support them, including parents, DREs, Ministers and Youth Advisors. Here are some of the specific areas of my work:
- Supervise the Office of Youth Ministries Staff. This means that I am closely tied to all the work that they do.
- Oversee the Budget of the Office of Youth Ministries.
- Consult on issues around Scouting for Girls and Boys.
- Support Youth Advisors.
- Consult with Congregations about the ministry they are providing with Youth.
- Advocate for Youth and Youth issues with in the UUA.
rkwawer @ uua.org (617) 948-4355
Handles the administrative support for the Youth Office: Clerical work, maintaining the Youth Office calendar, registering people for conferences and trainings, and handling the details of the Youth Office finances. I also help train and support the constantly-changing Youth Office staff in how to use all the technology and systems here at the UUA. I'm the most likely person to be in the office when everyone else is traveling to conferences, meetings, and events. I also help manage volunteers who come in to the office to support us with administrative work.
Handles Major Communications:
Answer the phones,
receive emails sent to yruu@uua.org, connecting people with appropriate staff or
resources. I help manage all of the many Office of Youth Ministries and YRUU email lists, our
database of youth, groups, and events, and maintain the YRUU/Office of Youth Ministries web
site.
Supports Youth-Related Curricula: I can answer incoming questions about:
- The Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality curriculum for Grades 7-9 and 10-12, including keeping a database of trained OWL teachers
- The Religion in Life award program for UU Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
- Coming-of-Age programs
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
