Administration & Volunteer Management

“Creating a dynamic and sustainable Religious Education Program”

Scope of Knowledge and Skills

• Record-keeping and budgeting
• Oral and written communication
• Working with the Religious Education Committee
• Recruiting volunteers
• Developing and implementing training Programs for volunteers
• Matching volunteers to positions

Examples

• Proposing, justifying, and managing a budget
• Managing a system that assures adequate volunteer coverage for Programs

Human & Faith Development

“Creating developmentally-appropriate religious education programming”

Scope of Knowledge and Skills

• Theories of human development
• Theories of faith development
• Application of human and faith development knowledge to planning and implementing an Religious Education Program
• Ability to accommodate children with special needs
• Given the prevalence of trauma, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, learn how trauma affects people and develop skills that avoid retraumatizing practices. These skills should be culturally sensitive and spiritually grounded

Examples

• Making appropriate decisions with regard to staffing, curriculum selection and development, rituals, and Programs for various ages and stages of human and faith development
• Recognize adaptive responses to trauma, articulate strengths-based approaches
• Articulate de-escalation and trauma-prevention techniques

Safer Congregations, Right Relations & Professional Ethics

“Creating shared ministry and safe spaces”

Scope of Knowledge and Skills

• Ethics
• Liberal Religious Educators Association Code of Conduct
• Interpersonal skills
• Staff team collaboration and support
• Safe Congregations

Examples

• Developing, implementing, and monitoring safe congregation policies and procedures within the Religious Education Program

Unitarian Universalist Foundations

“Growing Unitarian Universalists”

Scope of Knowledge and Skills

• Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist history
• Congregational polity
• Educational philosophy of key figures in U, U, and UU histories
• Article 2: history and implications for religious education
• Living tradition

Examples

• Using the values and covenant statements to shape/inform the explicit curriculum
• Enhancing existing curricula with illustrations from UU history
• Aligning the Religious Education Program with the Religious Education philosophy and vision of the Religious Educator, Religious Education Committee, and Congregation
• Incorporating the concept of being a living tradition with Article 2 as a case study