FGC’s Young Adult & Youth Ministries program is growing! See below for information about upcoming and recent past programs.

FGC’s Young Adult and Youth Ministries program supports the spiritual lives of younger generations through community-building, leadership development, spiritual nurture, and peer support grounded in Quaker faith and practice. In addition to the FGC Gathering of Friends and Young Adult and Youth (YAY) Gatherings, FGC offers workshops, retreats, and other programs year-round to meet the needs of youth, young adults, families with children, and adults who work with young people in Quaker settings.

Upcoming events and programs will be posted here as they are announced. You can also scroll down to see past program offerings!

2023 Gathering of Friends

Children, youth, young adults, and Friends of all ages are invited to an in-person Gathering of Friends at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon, July 2-8, 2023.

Past Programs:

YAY Gathering – Young Adult & Youth Gathering

YAY! Summer 2022, FGC invited families, young adults & youth to gather in-person in Radford, Virginia from July 6-10, 2022.

Virtual Retreats for Youth of Color

Get up to some good trouble at our Virtual Retreats for Youth of Color!

Join FGC’s Ministry on Racism for quarterly Virtual Retreats for Youth of Color throughout 2022! Each retreat will be held in 3 or 4 90-minute segments on a weekend, and is designed to be accessible from time zones across North America. These youth retreats are for all youth of color through High School age.

FGC’s Ministry on Racism began offering virtual retreats for Youth of Color in 2020. For more information about upcoming virtual youth retreats, please visit this link.

Adult Young Friends & High School Clerks Training

The responsibility of Quaker business falls to the entire community, not just the clerks – so we invite all Middle, High School & Adult Young Friends to this training! This is particularly important since the pandemic has interrupted and interfered with Friends’ ability to meet and have continuity of leadership. The more that the full body understands Quaker discernment process, then the more deeply everyone can enter into the process and take ownership of community decisions.

This is a training in 3 parts – two virtual sessions and one day-long in-person session in Philadelphia, PA. We expect that participants will attend all three sessions if possible.

• Virtual: Sunday, March 20 from 3:30-5:30 pm eastern and Sunday, April 3 from 3:30-5:30 pm eastern
• In-person: Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 10 am – 5 pm at Arch Street Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. High School participants are invited to stay overnight at Arch Street for fellowship with guidance from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting youth program staff.

This event is co-hosted by Friends General Conference (FGC) and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PhYM). All participants under age 18 must submit at Youth Health Permission Form to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Family Place

Spiritual Mentorship Pilot Program

September 2021-March 2022 FGC piloted a Spiritual Mentorship Program for youth and young adults interested in developing their spiritual gifts of clerking, discernment, and community leadership.

The purpose of the program was to nourish & nurture intergenerational relationships that foster transformation and growth and to provide spiritual accompaniment in our lives as Friends and beyond.

This 6-month program connects early-growing Seekers with seasoned-and-still-growing Mentors.

Participant Expectations:

To participate in this program, we ask that you commit to attending an online discernment session in September 2021 and to meet twice a month with your Seeker/Mentor from Fall 2021 to Winter 2022. Each pair will be assigned an Advisory Committee member for support. We will hold optional monthly full group check-in sessions and a Closing Celebration in March 2022.

Application:

If you would like to participate in the program as a Seeker and/or Mentor, please complete an application.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until August 22, 2021.

Interested in participating but can’t serve as a seeker or mentor? We are currently seeking Friends to serving on the Advisory Committee! For more information, read the Advisory Committee Member description below.

Program Information

Other events

During 2020-2021, FGC experimented with new virtual year-round youth programs. These included:

• Quake that Rocked the Continent: Youth Summits for Middle and High School Friends. FGC co-hosted two events with a variety of Yearly Meetings. The Quakes offered interactive workshops, worship and hang-out times for older youth. Guest artists and activists led workshops on gift discernment and community organizing. The Summits were held December 2020 and February 2021. Click here to read a summary of the December Quake.
• Writing Workshops with Friends Journal: In 2020, FGC partnered with Friends Journal on the Student Voices Project. Friends Journal is now accepting written submissions from Middle and High School youth on the theme, “What has been your personal experience with climate activism and sustainability?” Submissions are due February 14, 2022.

Questions:

For questions about these programs, please contact Marian Dalke, Gathering Youth Coordinator, at mariand@fgcquaker.org