VIDEO: Best Practices for Campus Ministry Outreach

Posted by Annie Gonzalez Milliken // November 10th 2016 // Future of Faith, Guides and Tools, UU Campus Qs // one comment

#UUCampusQ’s Episode Four Students on campus need your community now, so get the word out! The Reverend Annie Gonzalez Milliken, the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate of the Unititarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Minisitries invites Carey McDonald, Outreach Director at the UUA to discuss how Campus Ministries can get the word out on what they do in noticeable, memorable and effective ways. Like Campus UUs on Facebook to be notified when episodes of UUCampusQs are released!  Carey has thought a lot about this and shares some pizzazzy tips:

Reflections on Service in New Orleans 4

Posted by T. Resnikoff // August 5th 2016 // Featured Youth, Stories and Voices, youth, Youth Trainings/Justice Trips/Cons // no comments

Learning How to do Anti-Racism Work at Home The following is the first of five reflections on a service trip that members of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara YRUU group made to New Orleans, LA. The group spent three days in New Orleans and six on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, working with local organizations through the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal. The youth group’s work focused on the issues of racism and privilege with an eye toward taking what they learned to foment positive change in their home community. This trip was made possible by the industrious fundraising of the youth group (who we are told sold lots and…

Reflections on Service in New Orleans 3

Posted by T. Resnikoff // August 3rd 2016 // Featured Youth, Stories and Voices, youth, Youth Trainings/Justice Trips/Cons // no comments

The Right to Joy – to Combat Injustice The following is the first of five reflections on a service trip that members of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara YRUU group made to New Orleans, LA. The group spent three days in New Orleans and six on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, working with local organizations through the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal. The youth group’s work focused on the issues of racism and privilege with an eye toward taking what they learned to foment positive change in their home community. This trip was made possible by the industrious fundraising of the youth group (who we are told sold lots and…

VIDEO: Activities at Campus Ministry Meetings

Posted by Annie Gonzalez Milliken // May 25th 2016 // Future of Faith, Guides and Tools, UU Campus Qs // one comment

#UUCampusQ’s Episode Three What Can I Actually Do? The Reverend Annie Gonzalez Milliken, the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate of the Unititarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Minisitries learns what kinds of activities work well for a campus group, by speaking with  Alice King, an intern minister and seminarian with 9 years of on the ground campus ministry experience, and Kayla Parker, a recent seminary grad who previously served as the Unitarian Universalist Association Campus Ministry Associate. Like Campus UUs on Facebook to be notified when episodes of UUCampusQs are released!   Alice mentions a wide variety of resources in her part of the video.  Here are some of the ideas…

Hallowed Growth in NOLA

Posted by T. Resnikoff // April 14th 2016 // Featured Young Adults, Social Justice, Stories and Voices, young adults // no comments

New Orleans Service Trip by Emily Parker On this small lot in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, organic vegetables grow in rows. Honey bees housed in hives on the lot buzz by, and a bench constructed between cinder blocks doubles as a flower planter. Inside a modest greenhouse, a hodgepodge of reclaimed bathtubs support an aquaculture, growing fish and fertilizing plants symbiotically. David Young, the man behind this and many other community gardens in the Lower Ninth Ward, is taking me and seventeen other Juniata College students on a tour. Spending our spring break in New Orleans for a week of interfaith service and learning, we have just finished our first day of…

Cultivating a Culture of Youth Leadership

Posted by jennicadavishockett // March 3rd 2016 // Featured Youth, Future of Faith, UUA // no comments

Race to the Top for Unitarian Universalism It’s a thrill every time I get a notification that a new youth has applied to our Luminary Leaders program. But I have to admit, the shock has worn off when I open the tab and see it’s another youth from Eliot Chapel in Kirkwood, MO and that it’s Director of Religious Eduction Scott Stewart serving as one of the two required endorsements. Eliot Chapel has seven people (four youth Luminary Leaders and three young adult Luminary Alumni) in the program. Compare that to our second runner up, with 5 people in the program, four of whom were fast tracked into the program because they attended a national…

Adolescent Brain Development and Faith Formation

Posted by jennicadavishockett // February 24th 2016 // Future of Faith, Guides and Tools // one comment

Mind = Blown Editorial Comment: Impacting the mental health and development of our teenagers is an incredibly complex topic and this article by no means covers all bases. This article does not address mental health disorders and focuses on the development of a neurotypical adolescent. The author is eager to partner with others in learning more about this complex topic. –ed. All you adults in youth ministry out there: ever wonder if your guidance is actually “sinking in” to your teens’ brains? Well, it literally is. New studies in adolescent brain development reveal the incredible plasticity of the teenage brain and persuasively point out that adolescence is a critical “use it or lose it” time…

Eliot Unitarian Chapel Helps Youth Wake Up to Race

Posted by jennicadavishockett // February 10th 2016 // Featured Youth, Issues and Trends, Social Justice // one comment

In honor of the Standing on the Side of Love 30 Days of Love 2016 campaign, Colleen Lee speaks up about her awakening to racial tensions close to home. Social justice is a core value of Unitarian Universalism (UU). Even though Unitarian Universalists’ beliefs can differ dramatically one common strand is social justice. As a white female youth who lives close to Ferguson, MO, I used to be uncomfortable discussing race. I feared that I would offend someone if I said anything about race. So I didn’t actively acknowledge and confront race as an issue because of how touchy of a subject it was. But all the injustices brought to light by the Michael Brown…

Meet the Youth Caucus 2016 Super Staff!

Posted by jennicadavishockett // February 8th 2016 // Future of Faith, General Assembly 2016 // no comments

Youth Caucus Staff : bringing covenant wherever they go General Assembly (GA) 2016 is bound to be a phenomenal experience thanks in part to the 2016 Youth Caucus staff who promise you interfaith exploration, lots of singing, fun and games, ways to tap into important social justice movements and the insider scoop on the business of the Unitarian Universalist Association.   Andrea Briscoe, Senior Dean Andrea is a Junior who lives in the area of Philadelphia, PA. She attends Main Line Unitarian Church in the Joseph Priestley District of Central East Regional Group (CERG). She loves cooking/baking, learning about different cultures and languages, and enjoys reading anything and everything non-fiction. She has served as leadership…

Fiercely UU: Universalism and the Disinherited

Posted by Elizabeth Nguyen // January 28th 2016 // Featured Young Adults, Future of Faith, Mosaic, Stories and Voices // one comment

Fiercely UU is a new blog series where Unitarian Universalist young adults tell stories about what our faith requires of us and how they follow that call.  To be fiercely UU is to proclaim human worth and interdependence. In an individualist, greed-based, shame and fear fueled white supremacist patriarchy, we say no to isolation and oppression and yes to radical love and covenanted connection. – Ed. Read more stories of Fiercely Unitarian Universalist Faith here. The Disinherited  by Joseph Boyd Will is a friend of mine. We met at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in a two acre garden space, a little Eden in the midst of bars, blood, and stinky socks. Will sat in a corner and…