The next YAY Gathering will be in 2025!
The below information is about the 2022 YAY Gathering
The 2022 YAY Gathering was Wednesday, July 6 – Sunday, July 10, 2022 at Radford University, Virginia
YAY Gathering is an in-person event for Quaker Young Adults, Youth & Families hosted by FGC’s Junior Gathering, High School and Adult Young Friend Committees.
This event will run at the same time as the 2022 FGC virtual Gathering. Junior Gathering and High School programs at YAY will only focus on in-person activities. Adult Young Friends and Adult Friends (parents, sponsors, and volunteers) will have a mix of in-person and virtual events available to them. FGC is carefully emerging from the pandemic by offering small and medium-sized events this year. FGC feels that hosting this smaller in-person event reduces some of the risks and challenges present with a full-scale in-person Gathering. We plan to be back at full-scale in 2023 for the all ages in-person Gathering in Monmouth, Oregon.
View the YAY Gathering schedule here.
Event Structure
YAY will have separate sessions for each of these communities:
- Junior Gathering (birth-rising 9th grade)
- High School (rising 10th-graduating seniors)
- Adult Young Friends (ages 18-37)
- Adult Friends (for parents & sponsors of youth & children ages 0-18 at the event and volunteers)
There will also be daily intergenerational activities for all groups to play, worship & learn together. Adult Young Friends and High School participants will each have their own separate dorms. High School participants must attend with a parent or sponsor.
Click here for information about COVID protocols at the event.
View the YAY Gathering Times for information about the event and activity pages to do as you travel to Virginia!
Junior Gathering
The Junior Gathering staff were great- full of lightness and love.
Sprouts Parent
Junior Gathering is:
- Home base for newborns to rising ninth graders
- Where young people learn, play, and thrive
- A time for games, songs, and stories
- A place to make friends and experience Quakerism with Friends from across the continent
- Full of fun and educational Quaker-based activities led by a diverse, caring, and skilled staff
Click here to view the Junior Gathering YAY Schedule
Participants are placed in age-based groups during YAY.
Junior Gathering staff strive to keep our Junior Gathering community engaging, nurturing, inclusive and welcoming of all children and families.
Supervision of children at YAY
Parents or sponsors are responsible for supervision of their children at all times except during Junior Gathering programming. Plan to spend all meal times, afternoon free times, and evenings after 9:30 PM together as a family.
Preparing for YAY’s Junior Gathering: Visit this link for packing lists and other steps to get ready for YAY Junior Gathering!
Group Letters
Read this letter from your child’s group coordinator to hear about what’s in store at YAY!
High School Program
“Everyone was super inclusive and we all got along really well and had a lot of fun.”
2020 Participant
The High School Program is open to young people who have completed ninth grade, have not yet turned 19 as of July 3, 2022 and have not yet completed a first year of college. Only YAY attenders in this age range may participate in the HS Program. Participants must attend the full event and all required activities.
Click here to view the High School Program Schedule
What is the High School Program?
We wholeheartedly welcome you to help create a community of high school-aged Quakers from all over North America for a half-week full of spiritual exploration, community building, and fun.
The 2022 FGC High School community will gather in Radford, Virginia from July 6-10. High schoolers are housed together and create their own self-governing community (with a little help from adult Friends who serve as counselors). The program includes workshops, worship, support groups, affinity groups, and a final celebration. There are also opportunities for dancing, sports, singing, committee work, sleep, and hanging out.
During YAY, the High School Program convenes for a meeting for worship with attention to business. These meetings are integral to our community-building process, where we seek discernment of the Spirit and hold relevant issues in the Light.
High School Parents & Sponsors
All High School participants need a sponsor at YAY. A sponsor is a parent, family member or other conscientious person 25 or older who knows the High School program participant well. If the sponsor is not the parent, the sponsor should be someone who is actively concerned with the young person’s activities and well-being. We request that a sponsor be responsible for no more than two high schoolers. Both the participant and sponsor must be full time YAY attendees residing on campus.
High schoolers may not arrive before sponsors or remain on campus at Radford after sponsors have departed. Please make travel plans accordingly. The sponsor (or designated alternate) must be on campus (or with the sponsee) at all times during YAY. Alternate sponsors are designated in writing in advance. Complete sponsor guidelines may be viewed at our website in June, and will be explained in detail at the High School Program sponsor orientation on Wednesday evening. All participants, even those already 18, must identify their sponsor when registering for YAY and submit a parental release form.
Shared Expectations
The high school program is a unique and loving community. All who participate are asked to commit to the safety and health of all community members, to use common sense and to meet all FGC expectations, including those about sexual activity, recreational drugs and alcohol. Participants in the High School program are expected to plan to attend for the entire event to help build our community, and attend all required High School program events.
The complete Program Guidelines will be e-mailed in advance of YAY, as will the FGC expectations. FGC expectations are also available at this link. Please review the Participant Expectations for FGC High School Program due to the relevancy of the smoking guideline.
Adult Young Friends
The FGC Adult Young Friends (AYF) community includes Friends between the ages of 18-35. For YAY, Friends up to age 37 are invited to participate in the AYF community. The AYF committee wants to be able to gather in-person with Friends who aged out of the program during the last two years of virtual events.
The AYF Committee is currently planning events for YAY! Learn more about the Adult Young Friends program.
There will be some virtual Adult Young Friends programs at the beginning of the 2022 FGC virtual Gathering for those who cannot attend in-person.
Click here to view the Adult Young Friend Schedule
Adult Friends: Parents, Guardians, Sponsors & Volunteers
FGC Youth & Young Adult Committees hope YAY will be a restorative and fun event for parents, sponsors & volunteers. In addition for ample time for rest and respite, parents, guardians & sponsors can participate in the following activities:
- Daily worship
- Workshops on storytelling and spiritual deepening
- Worship Sharing
- Family time
- Intergenerational activities
- Racial affinity groups
- Adult Young Friend sessions (if you are ages 18-37)
- Virtual Gathering sessions (Bible Half Hour, worship sharing, workshops, afternoon activities, evening program)
Click here to view the Adult Friend Schedule
There are 2 workshop options for Adult Friends at YAY.
Building a Meaningful & Connected Life
Facilitator: Rachel Ernst Stahlhut
In this workshop, we will be exploring and sharing together what it means to live a meaningful and connected life through a Quaker lens. We’ll look into themes of spirituality, relationships, and finding purpose and connection, as well as the challenges to building a meaningful life, the things that get in the way and bring stress and uncertainty. Finally, we’ll explore Quaker values and practices that can serve as tools for transformation and connection. Workshop limit: 30 participants.
Rachel is the coordinator of FGC’s Spiritual Deepening Program and also serves as the presiding clerk of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting. She has traveled in the ministry with a concern for outreach and deepening the spiritual vitality of meetings and individuals. Rachel lives with her family in Cincinnati, where she will be spending the summer gardening and porch-sitting.
Play and Pray with Story
Facilitator: Katie Green
Be ready to laugh, play, and share experiences with storyteller Katie Green. Katie has been telling stories and leading workshops from coast to coast for over thirty years. Worship sharing will be an integral part of the workshop.
In our time together, we will unpack the storytellers’ toolbox in a safe, nurturing environment. Participants will develop an original story that speaks to a concern. Workshop limit: 15 participants.
Katie Green is a member of the Clearwater Friends Meeting in Dunedin, Florida. She reviews children’s books for Friends Journal, and has told stories and led workshops at Friends General Conference, New England Yearly Meeting, and SouthEast Yearly Meeting. Learn more at: http://www.katiegreenstories.com/
Want to help out?
The YAY Committees are excited to design an event that is supportive of staff and volunteers. If you’d like to serve as staff at this event – please complete a staff application here.
Invite a friend to join you at YAY! Share the YAY Gathering flyer!