Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Youth Programs

EMIR Healing Center ministry supported by Green Street Monthly Meeting

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Green Street Meeting’s Quaker Social Change Ministry group in support of EMIR Healing Center is having a “Fill a Bookbag” drive to gather school supplies for 85 children participating in the center’s programs this year.

EMIR stands for “Every Murder is Real.” The center, in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, was founded by Green Street member Victoria Greene, after her son Emir was murdered. Victoria has spoken about the work of EMIR Healing Center in keynote addresses at PYM Annual Sessions and the FGC Gathering, as well as in a QuakerSpeak video.

Murder is devastating to families. Children risk falling behind in school or being unprepared due to the traumatic emotional and financial consequences of murder. Parents and caregivers may still be struggling with grief and trauma long after the incident. The ministry support group is pulling together backpacks with school supplies for the children, so their families have one less thing to worry about.

You can help by writing a check to Green Street Friends Meeting, memo EMIR Fill a Bookbag, or shopping an Amazon wish list and having the supplies shipped directly to EMIR Healing Center. The ministry support group will assemble the backpacks in August. Learn more at http://greenstreetfriendsmeeting.org/emir.html.

Young Friends Program Transitions

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With deep gratitude, the PYM community acknowledges the many gifts of Young Friends Program Co-Facilitators Hannah Mayer and Kody Hersh as they each enter new stages of their lives and ministries, and move on from the Young Friends program. For many years they have anchored the Youth Program team with both administrative and program work, and also modeled for us deeply caring, authentic relationships with Young Friends. Their approach to youth work has helped to shape how our yearly meeting is moving forward with collaborative energy and joy in youth programs. [Read more…] about Young Friends Program Transitions

Junior Friends Conference Hosted by Abington Quarter

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      “This is the best week of my life.” 4th Grade Student

For more than forty years, Abington Quarter has supported two summer youth programs for members and attenders of Friends Meetings within the Quarter: Junior Friends Conference (JFC) and Middle School Friends Conference (MSFC). The opportunity to join the Junior Friends Conference is open to all young people in PYM completing grades 2-6! The JFC program is a one-week residential conference. This year, it will be held Sunday, June 17- Friday, June 22, 2018 at The George School in Bucks County.  The week will feature: arts, ecology, games, worship, swimming, talent sharing, team building, and campfires.

The JFC program offers participants the opportunity to live in a “Friendly” community that strives to live Quaker testimonies.  It is called a “conference”and not a camp because while there is fellowship and fun, the focus is to provide an environment rich in Quaker values.  The hope is for all children to benefit spiritually, emotionally and physically as a result of their experiences. A 5th Grade student reflected: “Thank you sooo much for helping me to come here, and I can’t explain how thankful I am to be in this wonderful community.”

Friends are asked to register no later than April 30, and questions can be directed to Karen Shanoski shanoski@comcast.net.

Junior Friends Conference 2018

Junior Friends Conference Registration

PYM Youth March for Our Lives

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On Saturday, March 24, at Spring Continuing Sessions, Youth from across PYM participated in the March for Our Lives at the Capitol in Harrisburg, PA.

The morning program was spent in preparation: wondering about how we let our lives speak as Friends, talking about what it is like to attend a march/rally, and processing different perspectives on the issue of gun control. Youth returned to the space where meeting for business was being held and gave a report of their concerns, including where they align with the March for Our Lives platform, and what they hope will change. One of the YM recording clerks later claimed the big piece of paper they had written on, explaining, “For the minutes!” They are now part of the history of PYM.

Also before lunch, the PYM body attending Sessions was asked if they had words to share with the youth, sustenance to send them off to the march in the afternoon. We acknowledged that for some Youth, this was their first time attending a march or rally like this. There was a lot of experience bearing witness among Friends in that room! Out of the silence, Friends called out,

“Be strong!”

“You are loved!”

“Stand in your truth!”

“God is with you!”

“Speak truth for justice!”

And many other messages.

We arrived at the Capitol and joined in the March around a city block and then assembled with the group on the Capitol steps. We carried the PYM banner and homemade signs. We chanted with other marchers. We created chants! One was “We want silence, not gun violence!” We stayed together, and took care of one another in our group, which was joined by about a dozen other Friends.

Back at Harrisburg Meeting during the debrief of the experience, the young Friends shared feelings of hope and calls to action. One MSF participant said, “Before, talking about this, I felt like we were in a bubble. But we’re part of something bigger.” They reminded us that there’s more to do, and suggested ways PYM and their local meetings can support them to network, stay in touch, and share information with each other.

They were student activists on Saturday. Not our future, but our now.

Youth Programs, Give Feedback on Vision & Mission

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Dear Friends,
The Youth Programs Sprint group has nearly completed its work to propose a vision, mission and governance structure for our yearly meeting’s youth programs. The Sprint group, through several iterations, looked at the history of our youth programs and considered their future. The Sprint group intentionally sought out voices that we don’t always hear from, including those of LGBTQ families, Friends of Color, and Friends involved in religious education at monthly and quarterly meetings. Voices of young people themselves were also included in the discernment process, and several members of the Young Friends community serve on the Sprint group.
Friends from across the yearly meeting are invited to read the proposal and to submit feedback to the Clerk of the Youth Programs Sprint, Kri Burkander, at kri@burkander.com.
Based on feedback, the proposal will be revised, and a final version will be brought to the April meeting of the Quaker Life Council. The proposal will also be included in advance documents for Continuing Sessions on Saturday March 24, where Friends will have an opportunity to give feedback during the Quaker Life Council report.
Friends can read the report in full below or view it on the PYM website.
Sincerely,
Kri Burkander, Clerk
Youth Programs Sprint
You can also read on the PYM website about our new Youth Engagement Coordinator and our new Youth Programs Facilitators and Assistants.

The Proposal

Vision Statement
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting children, youth and their families will feel connected to and engaged with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) via programs and practices that provide for connection, engagement, and the invitation into deeper relationship with God.
Mission Statement
PYM demonstrates our commitment to community, accessibility, and the foundation of our Quaker faith by working together to provide youth of all ages with opportunities for meaningful participation in our Quaker community and support for their spiritual journeys.
This mission is anchored in four pillars: Community, Accessibility, Quaker Faith and Values, and Meaningful Participation.
The first pillar is Community. We aim to provide youth, children, families, and seekers in our yearly meeting with opportunities to gather and be known to one another through shared experiences. We note that these opportunities may take place at either monthly, quarterly, or yearly meeting levels, and we are committed to supporting integration between and across these offerings. Additionally, our youth programs have the intention to nurture a sense of belonging and building supportive relationships within and among our youth, children, families, volunteers, and staff. To support this intention and these relationships, youth programs are structured to support the provision of pastoral care as appropriate by staff. Lastly, we recognize and celebrate the different youth communities within PYM and wish to nurture connections among them.
The second pillar is Accessibility. We aim to provide programs that are welcoming (with respect to race, physical ability, class, gender, familiarity with Quaker process, geographic location, or any other condition brought forward) with adequate support and accommodations that encourage participation by all. Our commitment to accessibility means that we recognize that the diversity within our community, as well as the broader community, strengthens us.
The third pillar is Quaker Faith and Values. Our programs are intended to invite all children, youth, and their families into deeper relationship with Spirit and nurture an understanding of our Quaker faith, traditions, and practice. Our programs provide youth with opportunities to grow spiritually, cultivate their leadership ability, learn and own Quaker process, and care for each other in loving community. We aim to nurture the capacity of youth to build Quaker faith communities and equip our youth to bear Quaker witness in the world.
The fourth pillar is Meaningful Participation. We are driven to provide children, youth, and their families with experiences that speak to their needs for exploration, knowledge, spiritual growth, and leadership development. We believe that these experiences provide children and youth with important skills as well as engendering a commitment to remain engaged with the Religious Society of Friends and this Yearly Meeting through the years.
Governance Structure
Youth Programs Advisory Committee (“Y-PAC”)
A committee of Quaker Life Council.
Membership: 9 members
-Youth Engagement Coordinator (Melinda)
-Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life (Zachary) – ex officio
-MSF youth representative
-YF youth representation
-at least one member of Youth Sprint III
-parent representative
3-at-large members suggested by Nominating Committee (approved by QLC)
Membership Notes:
In considering membership for this committee, attention should be paid to all aspects of diversity named above, including race, class, geographic location, and experience with Quakerism.
Youth members – at least one MSF and one YF who don’t necessarily serve as clerks (inviting new role as liaison to YPAC). Youth members may be active at any level of youth programming – monthly, quarterly, and/or yearly.
At large members are intended to provide outside voices that are not necessarily familiar to those on the YPAC or QLC, to ensure that youth programs are meeting the needs of all stakeholders. Guidance to Nominating should be to seek members from diverse parts of the YM, and those who bring the perspective of monthly and quarterly meetings, specifically those without Quarterly Meeting coordinators.
YPAC Responsibilities
  • This group should meet no less than 4 times per year, and be available for consultation as needed with the Youth Engagement Coordinator
  • Support the staff and volunteers in carrying out the mission and vision of the PYM youth programs
  • Serve as a sounding board for Youth Engagement Coordinator
  • Ongoing evaluation of the MSF and YF guidelines to ensure that they still meet the needs of the group and serve to support the vision and mission of youth programs
  • Support the organization and coordination of Youth Resource Friends
  • Consult with Administrative Council on any matters related to Youth Program staff
  • Provide policy guidance for staff and volunteers throughout the yearly meeting, including those related to child safety
  • Assisting with communication between youth programming and various communities within the YM
  • Regularly evaluate that the YM youth programs are supporting the Strategic Directions of the YM and that programs are serving the needs of youth (recommend surveying youth who are involved and those not involved to identify areas of improvement)

PYM Staff Join National Walk Out Day

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Quakers in our region have a long history of concern about gun violence. Individual monthly meetings and the yearly meeting have approved minutes and spoken with lawmakers about it. A campaign that grew out of PYM peace work successfully closed a Philadelphia gun shop with a tremendous reputation and record for straw purchases.  At this time when the youth of our nation are taking leadership on addressing gun violence we have opportunities for joining them and for learning and action.

Today, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting staff who were moved to do so joined youth across the country in a national walk out. At 10 AM, PYM staff stood with students from Friends Select School and others in front of City Hall. The students read aloud the names of those who were killed at the Parkland, FL high school shooting and called on our leaders to take action.  More information about the walk out is on the web here.

You can follow live updates on walk outs happening all over the country on the New York Times website.

Nurturing Multigenerational Spiritual Community in Salem Quarter

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“If we want to rediscover human joy and wholeness and creativity, and to learn to care for our planetary household as one earth family, we cannot continue to insulate adults and children from each other. Children need to be present to us, and we to them.” – Elise Boulding

My first visit to a local meeting as Youth Engagement Coordinator was in December, when I was invited to speak at Salem Quarterly Meeting on the topic of nurturing multigenerational spiritual community. Friends of all ages gathered at Woodbury Friends Meeting for introductions and the program “All Together Now,” which began with an activity to explore images, stories, and themes we encounter during the winter holiday season. After playing “silent squares” together, younger Friends transitioned to their program with Gail Scuderi, where they continued to explore their responses to the activity through art. Older Friends gathered to discuss how the whole meeting community can support children’s spiritual lives, including how to create multigenerational programs in a local meeting. The younger Friends returned from their program for the last part of worship together with the community.

The program was filmed, and you can watch it in the video linked below, which is now part of the Salem Quarter podcast series, “Clearly Quaker.” Some main points lifted up in the message:

  • Affirmation that spiritual formation is a life-long journey.
  • When a new family with children comes to a meeting, we need to attend to three kinds of needs: the spiritual formation/religious education of the children, parents who are seekers themselves, and the family’s hope for a faith home.
  • Let’s make a place for young Friends in our worship; there is a place at this table for them.
  • Spiritual community with their peers in a First Day program is vital as well — with a balance of informational and experiential learning. (The “kids table!”)
  • Our children need authentic relationships with adults other than their parents or primary caregivers.

In these places, adults can find ways to be fully present to children. Boulding also wrote, “To be a good futurist is to be a good listener to the young, who see shapes on the horizon that older folks miss.”

I encourage you to visit the Salem Quarter website and explore the wonderful podcast series,  “Clearly Quaker”. You’ll find Friends speaking on a variety of topics, sharing their truth, witness, and demonstrating our living faith!

Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator

Youth Programs Staff Update: New and Continuing Friends

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Dear Friends,

We are delighted to introduce to you the wonderful team of staff who will be working with PYM Youth Programs. Some Friends are familiar faces shifting into a new role, others are new to the Yearly Meeting community. Each of them brings significant gifts to the program they will serve, and their energy and dedication to youth work are inspiring.

Questions about the youth program gatherings can be directed to both the Facilitators and to me. Please reach out to MWennerBradley@pym.org about registration and other administrative questions, and to the Facilitators with questions related to one of the weekend or retreat programs. The Facilitators can be reached at their program emails:

ChildrenAndFamilies@pym.org

MiddleSchoolFriends@pym.org

YoungFriends@pym.org

In addition to the collaboration among Youth Programs staff, my hope is for us to create bridges between the Yearly Meeting programs offered by the Friends below, and the ministry of Friends supporting their local meeting children and youth programs. You’ll find a list of upcoming PYM programs at the end of this email. Also watch for news about upcoming “Conversation Circles.” These are places to share joys and challenges in First Day programs. Friends gather virtually using online tools to share ideas that work and to exchange new resources within the spiritual formation of children and youth.

I look forward to the many conversations ahead, and the journey of learning together.

Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator

 

 WELCOME! (and Huzzah!)

Kimani Keaton
Children and Families Program Facilitator 
A woman of many talents, Kimani is a retired West Philly nanny. Since graduating from Dickinson College with a degree in Sociology & Religion, she has also been an Assistant Teacher for First Grade Math and Science classes at the Kindezi School in Atlanta, and served children’s programs for Atlanta Friends Meeting and PhYM. Kimani is passionate about plants, cooking, dancing, music, art, storytelling, singing, and self-care. She brings enthusiasm, excellent communication skills, an appreciation and love for Quakerism, and thorough and varied experience with kids to her new PYM role. She feels called to lend her gifts to spiritual spaces and to nurture a more spirit-led and self-aware generation of young Friends.

Amy Connelly
Children and Families Program Assistant
Amy is new to PYM and thrilled to accept the Children and Families Program Assistant position. Amy has more than 10 years’ experience in planning meetings and events that she will apply in the new role.  As a mother of two young toddlers, she is motivated both to learn and share ideas for the spiritual development of young families. Amy hopes to join Buckingham Meeting in 2018.

Elizabeth Croce
Middle School Friends Program Facilitator
Elizabeth is thrilled to assume the Middle School Friends Program Facilitator position for PYM to create a spiritually grounded, exciting, and fun program for the MSFers. Elizabeth graduated from Guilford College in 2015 with a double major in Religious Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as a minor in Quaker Studies. She has worked as a Quaker Voluntary Service fellow in Germantown Friends School’s Community Involvement Office where she taught 7th grade Quakerism and coordinated service opportunities. She has also held positions as an assistant teacher in both 4th grade as well as kindergarten classrooms at GFS and in John B. Kelly public school. Since April 2016, Elizabeth served PYM as the Middle School Friends Assistant. Currently, Elizabeth is the First Day School Teacher/Coordinator for Haverford Friends Meeting and is enrolled in Chestnut Hill College’s Master’s of Education (PreK-4) program. Elizabeth is a member of Orlando Monthly Meeting in SEYM.

Colleen Hayes
Middle School Friends Program Assistant
Colleen spent many weekends growing up out in the woods of New Jersey with her family and as an eleven year Girl Scout. She studied English Literature and German at Guilford College, where she discovered and connected with the Society of Friends, Greensboro’s rich history of community-organizing, and the student run café’s consensus-model decision making process. An avid traveler, she taught English as a second language for two years in Austrian middle and high schools in conjunction with the Austria Fulbright Commission. She moved to West Philadelphia in 2016 and has been a Friendly Adult Presence at MSF gatherings since and an occasional attendee of West Philly Friends Meeting. In her free time she sings from the Sacred Harp, cooks big family meals with her house, and explores Philly.

Kody Gabriel Hersh
Young Friends Program Co-Facilitator
Kody has been working with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting youth programs since 2011. He is passionate about supporting young people to build communities that are creative, respectful, youth-led, spiritually deep, and anti-oppressive. Outside of youth work, he is a writer, musician, and LGBTQ advocate, serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams providing accompaniment to communities impacted by violence and oppression, is involved with PYM’s Undoing Racism Group, and loves to cook. Kody is a member of Miami Monthly Meeting, Southeastern Yearly Meeting. He may or may not be an actual unicorn.

Hannah Mayer
Young Friends Program Co-Facilitator
Hannah has been enjoying work with the PYM Young Friends program since 2010 when she first moved to Philadelphia. She is a member of Maury River Friends Meeting in Baltimore Yearly Meeting and was very active as a young person in BYM, engaging in the Young Friends community and working at BYM’s Quaker camps. A graduate of Earlham College, she now lives in West Philadelphia and works at Pendle Hill as the Assistant to the Executive Director. When she isn’t working at Pendle Hill or with Young Friends, Hannah can be found atop a trapeze practicing circus arts, troubleshooting an issue with her house, or experimenting with a new grain-free recipe.
Upcoming Youth Programs: 
  • Young Friends Winter Gathering, Feb. 9-11 at West Chester Meeting
  • MSF Winter Gathering, Feb. 16-18 at Solebury Meeting
  • Spring Continuing Sessions, March 24 in Caln Quarter — Programs for all ages, including Sat-Sun overnight for Middle School Friends
  • Young Friends and Middle School Friends at Camp Swatara, May 4-6
  • Spring Family Overnight, May 26-27 at Camp Dark Waters
  • Annual Sessions! July 25-29 at the College of New Jersey

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