Report from the Children, Youth, & Families Ministry Advisory Committee

News –

From Committee Member, Kirk Cozine:

The Children, Youth and Families Advisory Team met on April 30. After our chalice lighting and check-in, we discussed the upcoming Children, Youth, & Families Volunteer celebration to be held on May 3 and heard brief updates on the status of the on-going curriculum revision project.  

The majority of the meeting was then devoted to discussing the proposal to change the way in which youth staff are utilized and paid in connection with Sunday morning RE classes.  In general terms, next fall: 

  1. youth will no longer be paid to be YAYAs (youth staff) on Sunday mornings—instead, any youth participating as providers in our RE programs will do so as volunteers (just like the adults); 
  2. starting next fall, youth will be welcome to volunteer in the nursery/PreK childcare room and some RE classrooms;
  3. the church will continue paying youth staff to provide childcare for non-Sunday-morning activities, such as Saturday Sprouts, parent groups, and volunteer trainings, and for being counselors at summer camp.  

We discussed ways to communicate these changes to youth and the congregation. We ended with brainstorming what might be appropriate ways to handle recordings or streaming of services where minors were major participants.

If you have any questions or would like to share your feedback with the Advisory Team, please reach out to any Advisory Team member: Sara Olson, Sarah Heuser, Samantha White, Dylan Flunker, Troi Ferguson, Kirk Cozine, and Johannah Scheurer. First U Members can use the Breeze directory to find contact info. Staff contact: Allison Connelly-Vetter, allison [at] firstuniv.org.