Eric Bliss Hello, I'm Eric Bliss, I'm the youth and emerging adult ministry specialist for the Pacific Western Region of your Unitarian Universalist Association, our UUA. I'm here to tell you some exciting news in national UUA youth ministry. Today's video is brought to you by the UUA's Lifespan Faith Engagement Office or LFE. And we're here to tell you about a national movement to align our youth ministry staffing structures to reach more you UUs and make our ministry efforts more equitable. From the merger of Unitarian Universalism in 1961, led by our youth, to the Youth Ministry Working Group in 2012, to visioning conversations from just last year, the UUA's approach to youth ministry continues to evolve and adapt. All while our commitment to the faith development of young Unitarian Universalists remains. The Lifespan Faith Engagement Office has a mission. We put a justice seeking, radically inclusive faith in action by creating experiences for meaning making and faithful living, accompanying people to make a home in our faith, and advocating for youth engagement and lifespan faith development. Our slogan is C-creating Transformative Faith. This new model has been a process of co creation, as you will soon learn. Celina Steinberg To me youth ministry is about being there for one another, helping each other whenever we can, and really fostering an environment that is safe, inclusive and welcoming. Eric Bliss So how did we get here? In March of 2021, groups of UUA youth staff, religious professionals, youth and emerging adults had a series of cottage meetings over the course of a week to look ahead toward a new youth ministry trajectory for our Unitarian Universalist Association. This event was inspired by the recommendations of the Commission on Institutional Change, and it's Widening the Circle of Concern report, also the 2020 General Assembly or GA responsive resolution, and it was also prompted by a decade long lapse of intentional vision work, last revisited in 2012 when the UUA convened the Youth Ministry Working Group. Rev. Stevie Carmody Unitarian Universalist youth ministry means that people are able to be in community together, where they feel their inherent worth and dignity of who they are, and they're making real things happen in the world with their community. There's so much to being a young person in this world that can feel like a stormy sea. And youth ministry is the ballast that can keep folks anchored to remember that they're inherently valuable no matter what, and that what they do in this world matters. Eric Bliss So how do we keep folks anchored? How do we create communities that are safe, inclusive and welcoming? Why restructure? Well, because of the recommendations of Widening the Circle of Concern and also that 2020 GA responsive resolution, the recommendations are clear, we need to invest in youth and emerging adult ministry programs. And there was a clarion call for one full time equivalent employee per region, whilst also keeping current areas resourced with consistent staff and staffing levels. And after a few short years, planning to really significantly address the disparity in youth ministry programs and offerings across regions. The focus of this new staff configuration for youth and emerging adult ministries will help to streamline national offerings and guidance, so energy can shift to more intentionally support youth and emerging adults in local UU congregations and communities. Anchor, Inclusion, Welcome. Malika Gottfried Youth Ministry and specifically Unitarian Universalist youth ministry is everything to me. During my time as a youth, I learned how to lead and I had spaces to learn and grow and make mistakes and explore different things. And youth ministry is holding young people in love, making sure that they know that they are whole and holy, giving them spaces to find out who they want to be in the world and who they are and what contributions they want to make. And it doesn't serve just UUs, it serves everyone who's working with these incredible young leaders. Eric Bliss So what will this new youth staffing model look like? First, we'll be hiring a new Lifespan Faith Engagement Co-Director, focusing on Youth and Young Adult Ministry. Next, we'll be hiring a new event and communications coordinator to support national youth and young adult events. In addition, the UUA will be hiring a new children and families faith development associate to support ministry across the lifespan. This is the Lifespan Faith Engagement Office after all. For decades, the youth and young adult office at the UUA has provided many niche programs to youth, but not provided direct service to our member congregations and religious professionals. We hope to alter that practice with this new alignment. Once completely implemented, and given some time to build infrastructure, we hope to have local cluster coordinators and event staff in place for every region across the UUA while still also providing important explicit programming for marginalized youth and emerging adults and young adults across the association. Ultimately, our goal is to achieve more direct relationships with congregational youth ministries, and support smaller, more accessible local gatherings that ultimately strengthen youth groups and youth communities nationwide. You're invited to pause this portion of the video and take a few moments to look at the details of this new structure. As you look more closely at that purple section, you'll see that there is a specialist for each region. Those specialists work with young leadership, GA youth and young adult @GA staff, as well as youth, local youth cluster coordinators and program and event staff. Each specialist has their own specialty. Justice, leadership, pastoral care, supporting black, indigenous and persons of color as well as other marginalized communities. These folks will be embedded in regions and supporting Regional Youth Programs and offerings. And we want your feedback. The UUUA will be offering a series of town halls to get your thoughts and ideas about this new National Staffing alignment strategy. Stay tuned for more information about the timing, virtual location of these events. In the meantime, if you have questions, you can email faithengagement@uua.org. Check out these resources mentioned in our video today. Eric Bliss Big ups to all the folks who helped bring this vision to life. This process included and centered youth voices, particularly those who introduced in canvas for GA resolutions and who showed up to visioning week. It also brought in the insights of directors of religious education, ministers, parents, youth advisors, and UUA staff. Again, I want to thank you for joining us today and learning about this new staffing alignment strategy for youth and young adults at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Take care. Transcribed by https://otter.ai