Transitioning? Cross the Bridge!

By Deborah Neisel-Sanders

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Participate in the Bridge Connections program keeps you connected to UU community

Maybe you’re going off to college, getting your own apartment, or starting a new job. Maybe you’ve joined AmeriCorps, the military or other lifestyle that would make it hard to access religious community. However your life is changing right now, you are moving away from the UU community of your youth and entering young adulthood. We can make it easier for you to find a UU community in your new location, wherever that may be. Remaining in touch with a community of the faith in which you grew up can help you celebrate and weather the changes and challenges of this transitional time. Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), the Bridge Connections program helps keep youth who are bridging to young adulthood connected to UU communities and campus groups. Each year, bridging youth have the opportunity to send the contact-information of their new location to the UUA's Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries. You may provide your new contact-information online (at www.uua.org/bridgeconnections) or print out a Bridge Connection Form (PDF) and mail it in. In the fall - very soon, in fact! - the UUA will be notifying local congregations and campus ministries of those recently bridged young adults moving to their area, so that they may welcome them and notify them of services and programs in that area. If your new life makes it hard to access a local community, we can put you in touch with the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the virtual UU congregation online. So fill out the form and cross the bridge! You’ll find someone on the other side waiting for you with open arms. For more information about bridging resources and the Bridge Connections program, check out our Bridging Resources web page, email youth@uua.org or call 617-948-4350.