Youth Programming 2025

During this calendar year, we have an amazing opportunity to build our capacity for youth programming at UUCB. Funded by a grant from the Center for Congregations, we will

1. Raise awareness of youth needs among adults in our congregation;
2. Train adults to be effective leaders of youth-centered programs;
3. Organize activities for youth to build community, gain leadership skills, work together for social justice, and increase their connections to the greater Unitarian Universalist community.

To learn more about this project, the grant, and the broader context, please click here.

Youth Advisor Workshop

In order to build effective youth programming, we need adult leaders who are familiar with best practices for working with youth, aware of resources available, and committed to the goals and priorities of Unitarian Universalist youth programming.

Together with Jennica Davis-Hockett and Nico Van Ostrand who specialize in youth programming with the UUA, we'll kick off our grant activities with a training event on Saturday, March 1, from 10:00 - 4:00. This workshop is for adults who are interested in working with youth, or think they might be in the next few years. The goals of this high-energy, interactive session are to:

• learn what is meant by youth-centered spaces;
• identify characteristics of safe, healthy adult/youth relationships;
• build skills for inclusive group facilitation;
• become familiar with resources available to youth and their adult advisors;
• practice using these resources to create powerful and engaging youth programs.

Don't miss this unique opportunity!

Please register here.

Youth Activities

Youth or their parents: please fill out this form to indicate your interest and the best dates for you to attend the following events! All events are free or very low-cost for chaperones and for youth (grades 7-12) of UUCB member families. Nonmembers and friends are also welcome, space permitting, at a discounted rate. Contact Stephanie for more information.

1. Bradford Woods Adventure Education Program, April 19. Depending on feedback, we will attend a 4-hour OR 8-hour program at Bradford Woods featuring team building challenges that focus on planning, problem solving, and creative thinking, sometimes while traversing obstacles on the ground or up to 10 feet above ground.
2. Our Little World Art Studio (Nashville, IN). We'll carpool to Nashville, Indiana for a "Make and Take" session. Participants can choose from various projects to complete in the studio and take home with them. If time permits, we may visit other Nashville attractions while we're there. Our funding covers studio reservations and up to $30 additional for specific projects.
3. Holiday World, May 23. Celebrate the end of school with a trip to Santa Claus, Indiana, to visit Holiday World theme park! This will be a fun chance to get to know each other better and kick off the summer holidays.
4. UUA General Assembly, June 18-22, 2025. This year's GA will be held in Baltimore, Maryland. Our funding covers most of the travel, lodging, registration, and food expenses for 10 youth (completed 9th grade) and 4 advisors, making this a great opportunity to experience General Assembly, meet youth from around the country, participate in youth programming as well as other conference events, and share an unforgettable experience.
5. Wild Nature Project overnight. Wild Nature Project, based in Bloomington, Indiana, provides training in outdoor skills for children, youth, and adults. This 24-hour program will feature: Nature Connection best practices, Earth Skills instruction (primitive fire, shelters, wild foods, teamwork, sensory awareness, and playing games combining all of that with sneaking and hiding), navigation and orienteering, creating a culture of inclusiveness, support, connection, and meaning, and rituals for connection, meaning-making, sharing, deeper understanding of self & others.
6. Wild Nature Project 5-day Wilderness Immersion Program. In addition to the benefits provided by the overnight described above, the 5-day program will offer best practices of repairing conflicts and peacemaking and a 24-hour solo Quest -- an empowering experience of looking within for the answers they seek.
7. Youth Peer Pastoral Care Training. In this era of community care and growing communities of care we want to provide pastoral care training that is accessible to every UU youth. We believe that every youth can have the skills to listen deeply to a friend in need, every youth should be exposed to the nuances of listening within cultural contexts, and every youth should know who to turn to when their friend is in a crisis. This course combines video presentations of core content, featuring UUA staff, and discussion prompts, case studies, and other activities for participants. Topics include: an introduction to active listening, things to avoid, self awareness as a listener, how to end a listening session, practicing self care, offering trauma informed care, listening to collective pain, crisis triage, and expanding the circle of support.
8. “Dinner at UU” series. A big part of mental health for teens and those of all ages is solidifying healthy relationships with family members. While adolescence is often characterized as a time of pushing away parents, it is also true that especially in times of crisis, parents are still deeply needed and often the best sources of support for teens. It is also true that overscheduled lives can make quality time hard. "Dinner at UU" is a 3 part series that brings teens and caregivers together to chat about the role of media in their lives over a meal. Because what will always be true is every teen needs to eat. Program topics include: Reality TV and Me; Social Media and Self Esteem; Sexualized Media and Stereotypes.

Youth Room Upgrades

In addition to activities listed above, we have some limited funds for upgrading our youth room. [Take our poll here! Help choose paint colors and other options] If you would like to be involved in designing this space or helping to make the changes, please contact Stephanie Kimball.

New Congregational Resources

Please watch this space for announcements of new materials available in our UUCB church library, coming soon.

• Background Information

  We know that nationally, our youth are in crisis. The Center for Disease Control’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey: Data Summary and Trends Report 2011-2021 reports that “42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities” (CDC, 2023, p. 60). This was a 14% increase over the 2011 findings, where the percentage of high schoolers who “seriously considered attempting suicide” increased by 6% from 2011 to 2021 and those who “made a suicide plan” increased by 5% (CDC, 2023, p. 58).

  Locally, in 2023, Monroe County Community Voices for Health completed a community-wide healthcare audit to identify gaps in care across the region. According to the Monroe County Health Department and the Community Health Improvement Plan, which had a subcommittee that focused on mental health, “interviewees identified some significant gaps for young people in the community as it related to substance use and mental health and overall resilience.” In particular, gaps named include the “need for DCS approval before initiating some community-based services,” the decrease in youth transitional housing with the closing of a local program, lack of family and youth therapists who stay in the community for more than a few years, diversity in service providers, and costs associated with services which may not be covered by insurance (Taking Action against Substance use in Communities (TASC) - DRAFT project end report, Prepared by Monroe County Health Department, December 2023).

  Based on these national and local findings and our anecdotal experience in our community as parents, religious professionals, educators, and therapists, we know young people in our community are struggling to thrive - and some are struggling to survive. We also know that many youth in our community are vaping, having physically-aggressive and dangerous sexual encounters, and are exposed to drugs at an early age. In addition, we hear from teens who report staying up all night on more than one occasion supporting friends who were suicidal, despite having no training and no system of support for their own mental health as stand-in counselors. Whether the youth of our congregation are personally experiencing these crisis or not, they likely know people who are, and witness the effects first hand.

  Overall, we see a need for sanctuary among youth today: a place where all are welcomed as they are, where they can safely share their hopes and dreams as well as their fears and despair, where they can build resilience, skills and connections needed to thrive and lead in these challenging times.

  VISION

  We envision a Youth Empowerment Program that ultimately will be a youth-led space for young people to develop the skills, attitudes, resources, and connections necessary to thrive and lead as they cope with an unprecedented scope of stressors: fears of gun violence, climate anxiety, a sense of political instability, pressures of social media, the opioid crisis, growing rates of teen suicide, rising costs of college, worries about escalating global conflicts and the possibility of war, criminalization of health care, and more.

  This comprehensive youth program would involve a weekly meeting where youth could share a meal, get help with homework, and engage in a simple youth-led participatory worship service. Each week there would be one or more workshops offered, designed to build skills in areas that youth identify as priorities.

  WHERE WE ARE NOW

  Currently, our youth program is still in a re-building phase. After the COVID pandemic shut down our 2019-2020 youth group, we tried multiple times to restart weekly meetings. Through these efforts and conversations with youth and their parents, what we found is that youth are extremely busy, feel a great deal of stress over academic achievement and social status, and have little to no time to pursue hobbies, spend time in nature, or other “recharge” activities.

  Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that so few youth are available for our programs. It’s also apparent that no matter what resources and quality programming we might offer on a weeknight, it’s unlikely that we’ll have significant turnout on a consistent basis.

  Therefore, we recognize that our first step in building a Youth Empowerment Program is to build community among youth and develop leadership among both youth and their advisors. Once we build a critical mass of at least 30 youth and 8-10 adult advisors, we will begin to collect answers to our guiding questions: What do youth most worry about? What skills and resources do they need? What gifts and skills do they bring? How can we best help them navigate our changing world? Meanwhile, in order to support a robust youth program, we recognize that we need to provide some growth opportunities for the congregation as a whole. Our aim is to nurture the congregation as a community of care, moving past the silos that developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other traumas experienced in our congregation in the last several years.

  In 2025, we plan to focus on Phase 1, described below.

  PHASE 1: Community Building and Leadership Development

  Phase 1 will focus on rebuilding UUCB's youth program by re-engaging with the congregation's teens and also building leadership both with adult advisors and potential youth leaders. We will achieve this through both direct programming about mental health and leadership training as well as social activities meant to increase peer bonds. What we heard from youth during listening sessions was a desire for low-pressure, fun social events. The main goal of this phase is to have many opportunities for engagement for the UU's teens to re-establish bonds, connection, and trust. This phase will also consider how the congregation as a whole can both support teens' mental health and also address mental health concerns for the congregation as a whole. The grant will fund this phase of the program development.

  YOUTH:

  Group experiences (Holiday World, camping trips, art studio, etc.)

  Faith-building experiences (regional youth conferences, UUA General Assembly) Leadership skill-building (Peer pastoral care training, Bradford Woods Teambuilding Experience) Advisor recruitment and training (Youth Advisor Training with Nico Van-Ostrand; free programs such as Mental Health First Aid training, Youth Intervention Programs Association (YIPA) courses)

  CONGREGATION:

  Guest speakers and workshops on mental health, community building, and becoming a trauma informed congregation;

  Support for staff and lay leaders in learning about and modeling practices that support mental health Mental Health First Aid training for members of the congregation

  PHASE 2: Collaborative Program Design

  In early 2026, leadership will check back in with youth participants to design the next year of programming. Specific attention will be given to both youth and parents through listening and brainstorming sessions to create a sustainable program. Leadership will also engage in strategy meetings to address issues that arose during Phase 1. Additionally, teens, leadership and the congregation as a whole will focus on how to continue fundraising to support the group in 2026. The goal of this phase is to make sure the progress of 2025 and the support of the grant money makes a continued and lasting difference.

  Components:

  • Listening sessions (What do youth need? etc.)
  • Brainstorming sessions (what program components might fill those needs?) Research/problem solving (Fundraising plans; how to work with teen schedules; skilling up needs; find or develop a Youth Spiritual and Mental Health Resilience curriculum; find or develop a comprehensive adult leader training program)
  • Develop a plan (when to meet; activities/workshops; guest speakers/facilitators)

  PHASE 3: Pilot Program with UUCB youth and friends

  This will be the launch of the Youth Empowerment Program, designed with and for our congregation’s youth and the friends they invite to join. It will be necessary to have a critical mass of youth involved so that the programs are well-attended, energetic, and effective, so it’s not possible to predict a start date at this point. The aim of the program will be to support youth with skills, resources, and experiences they need to navigate the challenges of the times. Exactly what that will look like will depend upon the particular youth involved and the circumstances of the time.

  PHASE 4: Expand to a Community-wide Program

  Adult and teen leadership will meet regularly to talk about the needs and direction of the Youth Empowerment Program. Care will be given through listening sessions to receive input from a wide variety of participants. When the timing is right, leadership will reach out to other community youth groups or other youth communities in need. Special attention will be paid to identifying organizations that may benefit from partnership from the UU Youth Empowerment Program. Additionally, how to continue funding the program will be discussed and addressed.

  Components:

  • Continue assessing community needs
  • Identify resources needed
  • Develop partnerships with stakeholders and other organizations
  • Create plans for programming, staffing, funding, outreach

  This 4-phase plan demonstrates how the grant money from phase 1 can impact the program and youth for many years by creating a robust and engaged Youth Empowerment group.

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• Youth Events Survey
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