YLP to Present at NAIN 2009
Posted Fri, June 05, 2009 11:05 AM
From June 25 through 28, 2009, Interfaith Action and its Youth Leadership Program will have 5 representatives at the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) Conference. This year’s conference in Kansas City, Missouri will focus on Experiencing the Spirit in Education: the Challenge of Religious Pluralism.
IFA youth leaders Aanchal, Henal, Sophie, and Sarah will be the only high school students presenting at the conference. Their presentation will educate interested parties at the conference about how Interfaith Action’s Youth Leadership Program operates and why it is so different from other interfaith youth programs. Their presentation will include exploration of religious core values, the power of listening, and the success of the mentorship component of Interfaith Action’s Youth Leadership Program.
IFA Executive Director Janet Penn, in conjunction with our teens, will be holding a Saturday workshop for conference attendees entitled “Putting Teens in the Drivers Seat: How to Create a Youth-led Interfaith Program”. Janet will share how IFA empowers teens to plan and facilitate interfaith dialogue, school programs, national and international conferences and community interfaith celebrations. She will present the core principles and methodology that guide the program and share the multi-layered training programs that provide the skill base for their action.
Participants will learn about the mentoring process that enables adults to transform from their roles as teacher to a new role as guide and mentor. Participants will not only learn best practices, but analyze strategies that have not worked. Group discussion will include practical issues (e.g. recruitment) that emerge when starting a new interfaith youth program and ways to enhance existing interfaith youth programs.
Teen leaders from the program will be available to share their perspectives. Together we will explore how to strengthen the collegiate interfaith youth movement by expanding the realm of what is possible for high school teens.