Faith CoLab: Tapestry of Faith: Heeding the Call: A Program on Justicemaking for Junior High School Youth

Faith In Action: Carrying On the Legacy

Materials for Activity

  • Assorted materials from youth's community service or justice projects
  • Permission slips
  • Optional: Video camera or notepads and pens

Preparation for Activity

  • Decide as a group how you will structure the event and what you will do with the children's reflections. Make arrangements as needed.
  • If you are going to share the children's reflections, get signed permissions from children and caregivers/parents.

Description of Activity

Participants interview future justice makers.

Many youth are already involved in helping create justice. Younger children may not have had as many opportunities to do so. Encourage the group to help grow future justice makers by inviting younger children in the religious education program to share justice work experiences.

One way this could happen is through an event hosted by participants. The event could include a presentation by youth of projects they are or have been involved with that furthered justice. The presentation could include video and other media. At the end of the presentation, invite the children to talk about the issues that they envision themselves supporting in the future. Heeding the Call participants could videotape children as they talk about future justice work and produce a short DVD to show at a congregational gathering or as part of a worship service. Children might already have experience in community service and justice work and these experiences could be talked about, too. If videotaping is difficult, youth can take notes and write an article for the newsletter or share quotes during a congregational gathering or worship service. Do not forget to get permission from the children and their parents or legal guardians for filming them.