YOUTH VOICE FELLOWSHIP
About
High School students who have completed the Youth Leadership Symposium but have not yet graduated from high school will be invited to continue their leadership journey through the Youth Voice Fellowship. This group will learn about how the church functions on a denominational level and the weight and responsibility of representative leadership. Together they will craft an annual letter to the church, echoing the voices of youth across the country. Chaplains from our church related colleges and universities will serve as mentors for this group, providing a direct connection between our church's young leaders and our institutions of higher education.
The details
Youth Voice students will:
● Remain active in a local Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation.
● Complete a series of workshops that outline broader church polity (including middle judicatory structures and denominational bodies) and representative leadership (responsibility that comes with speaking on behalf of a larger community, cohort, or demographic).
● Meet with a group of mentors made up of Disciple College and University Chaplains to reflect on the place of youth in the larger church, dream about the future of the church, and discern where they might be called to speak, serve, engage or lead.
● Discuss what they feel called to say, if anything, to the larger church on behalf of their peers.
● Work together to craft one annual letter to the larger church that will be submitted to the HELM Board. The HELM Board will discuss the letter and make a recommendation for it to be forwarded to the General Minister and President and by extension to the General Board or refer it back to the Youth Voice Fellowship for additional work. Once it is formally received by the HELM Board, the “Youth Voice Fellowship Letter to the Church” will be forwarded as noted
above.
● Reflect on the intersectionality of their faith, leadership, acts of service, and future vocational plans.
● Identify areas of personal interest, expertise, and advocacy that they could be called upon to serve as youth voices in the larger church.
● Any further work of Youth Voice participants would come by invitation from the outside.
Youth Voice Fellows may:
● Review resolutions coming to General Assembly in advance, discuss them as a group, and consider how they might respond, amplify, or otherwise respond on behalf of their peers.
● Give input on specific issues, programs, or ideas presented to them by church partners.
● Be called upon to serve in a Regional leadership role.
● Be called upon to serve in a General church leadership role.
● Be invited to serve as an intern for special events or with specific denominational partners, depending on their personal gifts and interests.
● Explore other organic opportunities within the larger church, ecumenical, and interfaith community.
Youth Voice students will not:
● Plan national youth events.
● Serve as a “team” for leading youth events at General Assembly.
● Conduct programming of any kind for the larger church.