YLP Guiding Principles
What would the interfaith youth movement look like if all decisions about the movement were made by people between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years old?
Janet Penn backed into this question in 2002. It began simply enough: Interfaith Action’s Youth Leadership Program was planning to host a group of high school students from the Open House program in Ramle, Israel. The teens and adults couldn’t seem to reach consensus about the proposed agenda for the weekend. In exasperation Janet said to the teens, “We’re done talking and need to make a decision. You decide what you want to do.” And they did. The weekend passed and though she doesn’t recall the outcome of their vote, she remembers that the American and Israeli teens created an interesting panel discussion for the community. A paradigm shift occurred that afternoon and, by the time IFA came to understand it, the students involved were already in university.
Up until that time, Interfaith Action’s Youth Leadership Program in Sharon, Massachusetts ran like many programs. High school teens met once a month for three hours on a Sunday afternoon. Adults from different religious traditions met each month to plan the youth meetings and adults ran the sessions. Clergy often spoke as part of the meetings. While the program grew from fifteen to thirty teens and the teens actively engaged with each other during meetings, they did not have a say in the topic of the meeting, had limited contact between meetings, and rarely engaged in outside projects.
But after that weekend, things began to change. IFA adults invited the high school seniors in the group to meet with the adults once a month to help plan the meetings and the role of Senior Facilitator (SF) was born. These seniors were given the opportunity and responsibility to decide the structure and content of the meetings, and their input slowly transformed the nature of the group. They decided that three hours was too long for each session and agreed to meet twice a month on Sunday evenings for an hour and a half. That way, if they missed a session, they didn’t have to wait two months for another opportunity.
And it turned out, while they wanted to learn about different religions from clergy and take part in adult facilitated discussion, they were more interested in learning from each other. Some of their topics were specifically religious in nature, “What does it mean to you to be…?” Yet a lot of the discussion centered on ethnic traditions and cultural identity. Food was always a big topic of conversation. “What role does food play in your religion? Why don’t you eat pork? You’re Jewish, so how come you eat pork?”
The role of the SFs grew considerably and now these teens plan and facilitate every meeting. They decide which additional projects the Youth Leadership Program will take on and provide the leadership to achieve their goals. It’s a big responsibility and a significant a time commitment. Rising teens, mostly high school seniors, must apply to become a member of the leadership team. Each application is reviewed by the current leadership team. There are two criteria for acceptance. (1) Did the teen attend meetings regularly? (2) Does the leadership team as a whole reasonably reflect the religious diversity of the group? The number of Senior Facilitators on the Leadership Team changes each year, depending upon the cohort, but is usually between eight and fourteen teens.
Interfaith Action’s motto is “Reflection, Connection, Action.” The arc of the regular monthly meetings follows this dictum. In the fall, meeting activities encourage teens to reflect upon their own beliefs and practices. As the year progresses, they increasingly connect with teens from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Finally, with the support of training and mentoring, they engage in action that inspires other teens and adults to learn about each other, build positive relationships, and work together to address issues of local concern.