Context

Download this Thrive with DRUUMM YaYA Convening Report (PDF)

The last association-wide survey of young BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Unitarian Universalists was the Youth and Young Adult Mosaic Report in 2009. In the intervening years, institutional support for young BIPOC UUs has been inconsistent, including both brilliant chapters and periods of harm or disorganization. Other important reports, including the Widening the Circle of Concern report (2020) have implications for youth ministry broadly, often with sections specific to BIPOC youth and young adults (ages 14-35).

Given that the last report of scale for this population was nearly 15 years ago–and both Unitarian Universalism widely and youth ministry specifically have changed significantly in that time–it became clear that one of the top priorities for UUA staff focusing on BIPOC youth and young adults was to connect with the community and find out what they wanted and needed from the UUA. At the same time, Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) was entering a period of financial and organizational stability which allowed it to think strategically about revitalizing programming for young BIPOC UUs. Conversations about collaborating on this effort began in summer 2024 between DRUUMM leadership and the Youth and Emerging Adult Ministry Staff person heading up BIPOC youth and young adult programming at the UUA.

Planning Team and Facilitators

Rev. Kimberly Quinn Johnson
Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons
Nico Van Ostrand (report author)

Planning Process

The Thrive with DRUUMM YaYA Convening took shape as a collaborative effort between DRUUMM (Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons) and the UUA (Nico Van Ostrand). The process included checking in regularly via Zoom or email, making decisions together or being clear about who was empowered to decide for both of us, and communicating openly about timelines and duties so that we could share the work in ways that match our capacities and roles. This partnership was and is committed to sharing resources, ideas, and dreams freely–intentionally and successfully avoiding conflict around ownership in favor of true and trusting collaboration.

Credit for the programming described below goes largely to Rev. Kimberly. Additionally, members of the DRUUMM steering committee and other UUA Lifespan Faith Engagement staff were involved at various points of the planning process, especially around connecting us to potential participants, logistics, and budget.

The participant group consisted of three adult religious professionals (religious educator, seminarian, chaplain), one emerging adult (age 18-24), and three youth (14-18). Two other emerging adults, both of whom are also religious professionals, planned to attend but were unable to last minute. Some participants were found via a short survey, which collected contact information and written reflections on BIPOC Unitarian Universalism. Others were recommended by members of the planning team, LFE, or DRUUMM..

The planning process and event agenda were intentionally grounded in antiracism, building ways of being together that are familiar to many communities of color. The agenda was created with extreme spaciousness; assuming that there would be tangents, setbacks, and pivots allowed us to move through the day centering relationship and deep work rather than stress about getting through everything. This spaciousness was used at various points to follow rich discussion topics, engage in extra spiritual and centering practices, or recharge independently. For similar reasons, two hours were set aside for each meal. In addition to allowing flexibility for potential catering mishaps, honoring meal time in this way recognized that breaking bread together is more than just fueling the body, it is an important way to build community. The food was all sourced from restaurants whose business and food sourcing aligned with UU values, often BIPOC and/or immigrant owned restaurants.

Many of the resources and tools drawn upon emphasized connection/community building, UU values, and storytelling, making space for vulnerably and openly sharing about being a UU of color. The fact that this was a closed and covenanted BIPOC-only space helped facilitate that deeper sharing. This was necessary given that the group had just one weekend together during which to become comfortable enough with each other to share authentically. In addition, we provided a “mutual care table” which offered hygiene products, fidgets, masks and COVID tests, calming tools, and books. Participants were invited to bring things to add to the table, and to take from it as they needed throughout the gathering. This philosophy of giving and receiving freely was utilized throughout the time together, from the way the group shared dish duty to the way they chose what to do with their free time.

There were several times that the group wanted or needed to add an outing or task. The spaciousness of the agenda allowed for this, and their way of being together helped them decide what to do in ways that honored both our covenant and each individual’s needs.

Convening Agenda

The Convening took place August 8-11, 2024 in St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. The majority of what follows was planned; some of the additional outings happened in response to requests from the group.

Thursday August 8, 2024

Participants arrived to the retreat center in time for dinner, a small welcome gift, and casual conversation. Games, puzzles, a mutual care table, and an art table were made available and offered hands on activities for people to explore while they got to know each other. Some participants had met previously in other UU spaces; all were open and excited to be together. We created a group text for easy communication. Basic safety rules were covered briefly, and we agreed to reconvene the next morning at 9am.

Friday August 9, 2024

The morning block of programming was devoted to introductions and covenanting. In addition to sharing our names and pronouns, we went around the circle to share in response to two prompts: What is your connection to Unitarian Universalism? Who do you call your people?

Next we created a covenant using a shared Google Doc that everyone could access and contribute to from their phones. Participants paired up in multigenerational groupings and worked together to create the group covenant that guided the rest of our time together. The facilitators also read out the safety rules that everyone had agreed to when they registered.

Finally, we played several games that helped the group become more comfortable with each other. None were explicitly BIPOC or UU, but all centered storytelling and encouraged sharing. It was impressive how quickly this group built trust with each other, and spending plenty of time on games like this helped facilitate that trust.

After two hours of food, conversation, and rest, we reconvened for the afternoon block of storytelling and art. We split into multigenerational pairs or trios for storytelling around various prompts, and then came back together. The original prompts shifted a little bit in response to what was alive in the room. Here are the prompts we used:

• How did you become UU? When did you first know you were UU?
• What is difficult about being UU? What about the institutions or culture of UUism needs to be changed to help with this?
• What do you love about being UU?

We then created a collaborative art project around the last question, sharing more stories as we created. The intention for this afternoon block was to ground participants in the current reality–both beautiful and challenging–of BIPOC Unitarian Universalism. Only by honestly naming where we are now can we dream about where we might go.

The afternoon block closed with some drumming led by three participants. The group then elected to stop by the BLUU Housing Initiative property on our way to a dinner at Unity Church Unitarian. After a brief visit to the property and some conversation about the project, the group reconvened at the church for a welcome dinner. Unfortunately, no local BIPOC UUs attended. We shared food, admired the church building, and had a really special time exploring and talking about the DRUUMM Timeline. After dinner, the group decided to stop by a local ice cream shop famous for its unreasonably giant servings of ice cream.

Saturday August 10, 2024

During the morning block of Saturday we played an Article II/Shared UU Values game developed by Rev. Kimberly Quinn Johnson. We played in multigenerational teams, and started talking through ways that the shared UU values show up in concrete ways. This opened up a deeper conversation about UU theology in BIPOC spaces specifically. Beginning this day with focused theology time set us up well to devote the afternoon to dreaming about the future for BIPOC Unitarian Universalist youth ministry.

After our usual spacious lunch time, we reconvened with an activity from Deeper Joy called “Hand or Sound Jive”. The original instructions set this activity up as something like charades; we changed it slightly to ask the group to show without using their own words what they love about being UU. They were given free interpretation of that, and time to create. We then went around the circle to share; participants brought song, poetry, artwork, puppets, and story. It ended up being a deep worship moment.

Finally, the remaining two hours of the afternoon were spent in small groups (by age) to dream about what youth ministry for BIPOC UUs could be like. Each group wrote their ideas on sticky notes and brought them back to the full group to share and find similarities. The dreams they came up with are listed in the next section.

The evening hours were spent with various groups going to the Mall of America, packing up, and baking sweet treats. This was the last evening together, and the group had developed a closeness.

Sunday August 11, 2024

Sunday morning included the remaining packing and clearing out before going to worship at First Universalist of Minneapolis. We arrived late, but enjoyed the service and were given a space and some food for one more meal (and lots of laughter) together before airport runs began.

Dreams for BIPOC UU Youth & Young Adult Ministry

The following categorized and alphabetized list of dreams came out of this convening. Several of these are already in the works; many will require multi-year efforts. Some are outside of the UUA’s or DRUUMM’s scope of work or capacity, but all are valuable dreams and we encourage you to take inspiration from this list for your own work.

Continuing Education

• Continuing/higher education
• Fund seminarians to do campus ministry
• Life skill development
• Scholarships available for continuing education
• Support academic and career goals broadly

Data

• Connecting BIPOC peers/keeping track of who is where
• Data research and tracking of demographics

Digital Ministry

• BIPOC UU Instagram account, UU influencers
• Dedicated BIPOC page/resources on the UUA website
• Digital ministry
• New UUA website created by paid BIPOC youth, Including a chat room for BIPOC youth
• Virtual drop in spaces for BIPOC youth

Leadership Development

• BIPOC YaYA gatherings
• Experiences that participants want to share with others/their home congregation
• GA leadership opportunities
• Immersive learning
• In person events with text groups/virtual connections afterwards
• Lay leadership supports, especially for youth who don’t want to be ministers
• Leadership development
• Mentorship under Thrive for religious professionals to support BIPOC youth/emerging adults
• Revitalize Thrive
• Thrive gatherings
• Trips/pilgrimages to sites of BIPOC UU history or present day happenings

Miscellaneous

• BIPOC OWL—trainings and offerings
• Mental health services
• Timeline gallery of BIPOC history
• UU BIPOC YaYA literature and publishing
• Youth led activities

Outreach and Community

• Engaging 18-20 year olds/emerging adult groups
• Group spiritual direction
• Helping with outreach and connection
• Intentional community connections of BIPOC youth and young adults
• Share the plate with BIPOC youth/young adult org(s)

Scholarships and Funds

• BIPOC youth and young adult funds to go to GA
• Money, scholarships
• Paid internships

Reflections and Lessons

The reflections and learnings included in this section are meant to offer helpful information for others engaging in work with BIPOC YEAs, and are not meant as criticisms of the organizers, participants, or other groups involved in the Thrive with DRUUMM YaYA Convening.

Recruiting participants for this convening was a challenge. Many people were enthusiastic about the idea, but frequently cited scheduling and capacity limitations as reasons they were unable to participate. Despite casting a wide net and sending several dozen personal invitations, our final participant list was smaller than intended. Most of the participants were connected to Unitarian Universalism in ways outside of congregations (camps, chaplaincy, seminary). Discussion was often dominated by adult participants. Regular reminders were offered to re-center youth voices, with varying levels of success.

The Friday evening welcome dinner was intended as an opportunity for local BIPOC UUs to connect with each other and with the visiting group, but unfortunately had zero local attendees and no staff from the hosting church was able to join. Similarly, while participants very much enjoyed worship and lunch at a local church on Sunday, some expressed disappointment that the congregation’s BIPOC ministers and staff were not preaching or present. It would be important for future gatherings to ensure worship is led by a BIPOC UU.

It would be helpful to arrange an on-site logistics person–preferably white and/or not involved in the program–whose sole responsibility is coordinating food, housing, and transportation. This would allow the organizers to focus solely on holding space and facilitating the program.

Programming and discussion were consistently brought back to our shared UU values, UU joy, and worship to ground the sharing of stories. This served really well as a base for the group’s dreams for a BIPOC UU future.

The emphasis on community building was absolutely vital so that the group could form connections quickly but authentically in preparation to go deep on Saturday. Activities, games, and outings helped support this relationship building. Outings to local sites ended up being important to the group’s connection as well, providing more laid back opportunities to talk and have shared experiences outside of organized programming.

The food selection was consistently complimented, and served not just as delicious sustenance but also an opportunity to show off the richness of the local community. Frequently the menu would prompt story sharing about food, family, and identity.

Worship moments proved important both for the group’s spiritual well being and for emphasizing that this gathering was held at the unique intersection of youth/emerging adulthood, BIPOC racial identity, and Unitarian Universalism.

Finally, it should be noted that this was a very small sample of BIPOC UUs. While their input and opinions are absolutely valuable and need to be taken seriously, many voices were not present at the convening and this report can only represent those who were. Unitarian Universalism’s efforts to widen the circle and center the margins should include future focus groups and concerted efforts to gather and follow the needs of young BIPOC Unitarian Universalists. There were 15 years between the Mosaic Report and this one; may the space between this report on BIPOC UU youth ministry and the next be shorter and deeply transformational.