Youth Ministry Training Series Starts September 2016!

By Jennica Davis-Hockett

YM Training FINAL2

YM Training FINAL2

Have you ever asked a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) staff person for an advisor training and been told some form of, “We don’t do advisor training anymore,” or, “There’s one weekend training on the other side of your region a couple of months from now”, and wondered to yourself, “How am I ever going to get the skills I need to work with youth?”, or, “How am I ever going to get my volunteers trained?!”

OR

Is your youth ministry set up in a way that doesn’t revolve around a youth group? Perhaps you have a vital Coming of Age program, your high school aged youth are plugged in to teaching religious education classes and on the worship arts team, and you have a vibrant multi-generational ministry, but don’t have a youth group lead by advisors. Do you ever wonder if the UUA provides training sessions to support congregations like yours?

Well, wonder no more. The answer is…the groundbreaking year long Youth Ministry Training webinar series brought to you by your  UUA Congregational Life Staff and the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries.

What’s groundbreaking about it you ask? Never before has there been an interdepartmental collaboration like this! Never before has there been such a comprehensive resource for all types of youth ministry! Never before have you been able to get trained in youth ministry every month of the year, from your couch!

This series of webinars is geared towards ministers, religious educators, congregational staff and lay leaders. Primary materials draw from the Competencies for Ministry to/with Youth, and professional expertise across our UUA. Each webinar is 75 minutes long. For a complete list of webinar topics visit uua.org/ymwebinars.

“It must be very expensive to deliver such high quality, consistent content. What’s the cost?” you wonder. Well, IT’S FREE!!! We believe this material should be accessible to everyone, no matter what their budget.

The first webinar is Intro to Competencies for Ministry To/With Youth. 

No matter where you live or your role in youth ministry, this is intended to serve volunteers and paid staff serving in youth ministry and religious professionals who support or supervise youth ministry staff and volunteers. This webinar is especially useful for adults new to youth ministry. You will learn the basic components of:

  1. Forming healthy relationships and shared leadership with youth
  2. Creating a safer youth program
  3. Providing appropriate pastoral care and interventions
  4. Creating an inclusive youth ministry
  5. Planning, leading, facilitating and communicating in a youth ministry context
  6. Major models and content of youth programming
  7. The importance of developing self-knowledge and presence
  8. Functioning on a team

Jennica Hockett-Davis (Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries) and Nancy Combs-Morgan (MidAmerica Region) present this 75 minute webinar. Register now for either the September 13th, 1:00pm EST or September 15th, 8:00pm EST webinar session at uua.org/ymwebinars.