About the C*UUYAN Age Range
The Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN) was founded to meet the needs of UU Young Adults ages 18-35 inclusively. As such an organization C*UUYAN has melded age specific programming with creative worship styles, social justice, and UU community. We've done such a good job that we sometimes get requests from people outside of our age range to participate in our programming.Though individual conference deans have sometimes made exceptions, the C*UUYAN Conferences Planning Committee and Steering Committee discourage this for a number of reasons:
- The 18-35 age range was developed not because there was a perception that
somehow this age range was one developmental stage, but out of recognition that
this was the age range our UU faith movement was, by and large, not serving. It
was, along with the 14-18 age range, the "gap." We want to continue to focus on
these communities because we continue to believe that they are underserved by
the rest of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
- It is also an issue of power. Being a young adult is an identity. We want to
be able to come together and claim power together as young people in broader UU
movement. Even within our movement we see how easy it is for those of us closer
to the 35 year old mark to dominate committees, discussions, and decisions. We
need to be conscious of this as well as of the fact that it is our mission to
empower young adults within our faith. If we are fuzzy about our boundaries, we
risk marginalizing young adults in Unitarian Universalism.
- Our communities are designed to meet the needs of 18-35 year olds, as more
and more of us reach the age of 35, if we continue to be involved, the community
will begin to meet the needs of 25-45 year olds, then 30-50 year olds, etc. We
need to be strict about our age range to continue to have a place where 18 year
olds feel comfortable.
- The only people over the age of 35 who are allowed to attend C*UUYAN conferences are those mentors, educators, consultants and professionals who are specifically invited in that role; they are expected to maintain professional boundaries while participating in events.
The Continental leadership teams (Steering Committee and the Conferences Planning Committee) strongly support this statement. We are working to share it with local and district groups and we hope that all young adult groups will adopt these guidelines.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
