If so, the Young Friends in Residence Pilot Program is looking for you.

The YFIR pilot program has grown out of the Powell House Youth Program’s forty-year experiment in creating accepting and nurturing spaces for young people to encounter the authentic in themselves and in one another and in so doing to become powerful loving people in a world that sorely needs them.

We are looking for four young adult friends (18-25) who will commit for one or two years to live in a deep spiritual community where they will help each other and the wider community grow and prosper in the Spirit.  They will participate fully in the life of Perry City Monthly Meeting, Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting and New York Yearly meeting and will provide outreach to the local communities in Tompkins County, New York.

Youth Program Work

Anchored by this intentional life and as part of the outreach to local communities,  interns will design and administer a program of monthly conferences for youth 11 to 14 years old.  The program will offer a stable, long term, accepting and affirming space in which pre-teens and young teens are able to experience Quaker spirituality and nurture one another. The conferences will be held at the Perry City Meeting House and run Friday evening through Sunday lunch. Interns will take turns planning and facilitating the conferences.  These gatherings are full of opportunities to connect with one another in genuine and real ways.  There’s lots of exploration of topics on the hearts and minds of young people as they make their way through adolescence.  There are also lots of ways to relax and have fun.   Through affirmation circles, small group discussions, games and energy work, participants engage in fundamental Quaker practices: seeing that of God in themselves and each other; holding each other in the Light; and corporate worship.   With grounded, open, and creative facilitators, we have found that participants experience and respond to a simultaneously rooting and uplifting presence.  Conferences become a place where participants live in this Spirit and celebrate their deep connection with one another.


Additional Outreach and Inreach Work

Perry City Monthly Meeting is a small rural meeting 8 miles outside of Ithaca NY and is a member of Farmington-Scipio Region of NYYM. Perry City and Farmington-Scipio Friends have a long-standing commitment to witnessing for peace and social justice. In addition to the youth program work, interns will have the opportunity to be a Quaker presence at the Grassroots Festival, Tompkins County Earth Day celebration and at recruiting awareness tables in the local high schools. Interns will also be able to participate as counselors in regional programs dealing with conscientious objection to military taxation and writing statements of conscious. Within Perry City MM, interns may help develop the First Day School and child care programs and may assist in visitation to elderly and infirm Friends who cannot make it to worship. In addition interns will work with their elders and anchor (care) committee to identify other ways in which they can serve the meeting , the region and the local community.

Ithaca is a vibrant small city, home to Cornell University, Ithaca College and Ithaca Monthly Meeting. Ithaca has a number of progressive and alternative programs that deal with environmental issues, sustainability and social justice concerns. Interns will be encouraged to work 10 to 15 hours with one of the many non-profit organizations whose work reflects Friends testimonies of peace, equality, simplicity and integrity.


Intern Support

To support interns in their work, each intern will have an elder to serve as a sounding board and spiritual friend. Elders will be part of an anchor (or care) committee that interns can turn to for clearness, guidance, naming of their gifts and basic nuts and bolts assistance with housing, facilities, and other issues that arise.   A five-day training will occur in the first month of service. Interns will also receive room and board, health insurance and a small monthly stipend.

Requirements for Intern Positions

•    At least 18 years old
•    Experience with the Powell House youth program or a similar program
•    Practice in Quaker spirituality and process
•    A letter of recommendation from a clearness committee
•    Able and willing to commit for a minimum of one year
•    First Aid/CPR certification.


***APPLICATION DEADLINE JUNE 15TH 2009***
For more information: yfirwg@gmail.com or 518-794-8811 x13.