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!

2024 Gathering of Friends

You are enthusiastically invited to the 2024 Gathering of Friends, to be held at Haverford College June 30-July 6, 2024! The Gathering includes full-week programs for young adults, high schoolers, and children.

Many Hands Make Light Work: Quaker Business as Spiritual Practice

“Many Hands Make Light Work” is a workshop series designed to strengthen the understanding of Middle School Friends, Young Friends and Adult Young Friends (ages 12-35) in Quaker Business practices.

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! 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. In addition, this workshop series serves to support and train the clerks of FGC’s High School and Adult Young Friends programs.

Beginning in 2022, “Many Hands Make Light Work” cohorts have been formed each year to participate together in a series of online and in-person retreats and workshops. In 2023, the “Many Hands” program held a retreat in conjunction with the annual meeting of Central Committee, FGC’s primary governing group, joining Central Committee members for several sessions in discernment of key FGC governance issues.

Past Programs:

2023 Gathering of Friends

2023 Gathering logo and key information banner. The logo shows tall evergreens against a blue sky, with the Gathering theme text, "Listen So That We May Live" above. Text beside the logo says, "FGC Gathering 2023, Listen so that we may Live, July 2-8, 2023, Western Oregon University." Below the text, the Friends General Conference logo appears in dark blue.

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

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.

Spiritual Mentorship Pilot Program

A picture of a zoom screen full of smiling Spiritual Mentorship participants of various ages, genders and races.

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

Image of a dozen Friends of different ages and races smiling on zoom.

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


News


Events

  • Encountering Spirit Retreat

    Join us for an online spiritual retreat to explore our experience of the Light, held by Friends General Conference.

    Encountering God is a key experience of our Quaker faith. What can Early Friends teach us about finding Truth? Where does encounter happen? How do we open ourselves to the gift of direct relationship?

    This spring, join Quakers and newcomers as we explore these themes through online worship and workshops, offline spiritual practices, and various opportunities to learn from each other.

    (more…) Join us for an online spiritual retreat to explore our experience of the Light, held by Friends General Conference. Encountering…

    • Friday, April 12th, 2024 All day

    • Virtual
    View Event - Encountering Spirit Retreat
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