Youth Religious Education
Youth, ages 12 – 18, is a time of seeking truth and love, a time of rapid growth in mind, body and spirit. Young Friends may test the foundations of childhood, throw off what no longer fits, and search for a way forward that feels true to an emerging sense of personhood. The importance of community with peers grows as focus on family recedes into the background.
If you are involved in Quaker youth work, religious education for teens or similar programming, you may be interested in…
Curricula like…
Exploring Quakerism: A Study Guide, Teenagers Edition
"There is that of God in everyone," paraphrased from George Fox's revelation, electrified 17th century England and continues to speak to us today. This 14-session curriculum offers an overview of Quaker faith and practice for middle and high school students. Designed...
Quaker Affirmation: A Course of Study for Young Friends
"A curriculum envisioned, created, and developed as a way to guide and educate young Friends in their Quaker faith, similar to Confirmation Classes or Bar/Bat Mitzvah studies found in other faiths. For any Quaker Meeting or Church, the program is designed for middle...
Teen Racial Justice Curriculum
The purpose of this curriculum is to help young Friends sort out the many messages they get about race, racism, and white privilege, and to support them in becoming more effective forces for racial justice and racial healing. This work is neither easy nor trivial....
Resources for teaching like…
Silver Bullets: Guide to Initiative Problems, Adventure Games, and Trust Activities
Silver Bullets is a guide to initiative problems, adventure games and trust activities. The activities of this book have all been used effectively by a variety of teachers, counselors, therapists, camp directors and church leaders. All have wanted an effective,...
Despair, Hope and the Great Turning
Anxiety about the state of the world is common among young Friends. From the widely acclaimed Powell House Youth Program, this experiential retreat curriculum provides a safe place to voice the fear that burdens so many who seek to live with awareness and...
The Questions We Ask: A First Day School Lesson
The Questions We Ask is a lesson for older children and young teens. Karen Greenler (Madison Meeting, WI) has created an exploration of the creation story in Genesis laid alongside the Big Bang Theory. Her approach is addressed to"Quaker skeptics," the young Friends...
Books like…
Bayard Rustin: Troublemaker for Justice
A biography for younger readers about one of the most influential activists of our time, who was an early advocate for African Americans and for gay rights. Bayard Rustin was a major figure in the Civil Rights movement. He was arrested on a bus 13 years before Rosa...
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Lesson plan for the home with a book and activities. When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library — and figured...
Spirit Rising — Young Quaker Voices
Spirit Rising celebrates, critiques, questions, and reflects on the Quaker faith experience. Writing and visual art by teenage and young adult Quakers from around the world and across the theological and cultural spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends give...
Administrative guidance like …
Rules of Thumb for Community Safety
Friends Meetings, like all faith communities, are at risk of sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults. This one page explanation of the risk is a good conversation starter for Friends meetings seeking to create or strengthen safety policies. Rules of Thumb for...
Child Safety for Virtual Youth Programs, New England Yearly Meeting
New England Yearly Meeting's (NEYM) Child Safety Policy applies to all youth programming, including programs provided virtually. The following are specific to the use of Zoom or worth highlighting: Youth Programs Zoom meeting links will be shared with appropriate...
Passages: A Guide to Developing a Coming-of-Age Program
Many faiths mark the transition of young people to teenage/adult status with a special process: learning, performance or ceremony. Quakers do not have a particular tradition for doing this. Some Friends have felt a yearning to honor this transition within their...