UYWI

The Reload conference is a one-day intensive training in youth ministry, a blast of education and inspiration for both youth workers and high school students. Reload will be in 27 cities this year, including Boston on April 5. Click here to register.

UYWI's 2008 youth workers conference, held May 15-17 at Asuza Pacific University, will focus on the theme of legacy building. Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, and others are a "great cloud of witnesses" encouraging us to work for racial justice and dignity for the marginalized. Speakers include DJ Chaung, Jeremy Del Rio, Shane Claiborne, and Tommy "Urban D" Kyllonen.

Creative Brainstorming

So where’s the cold hard cash going to come from? With the lights turned on, the horizon cast, evaluation methodologies in place, and assets mapped, it’s time to rearrange the resources to create sustainable environments. Sometimes, good old fashioned brainstorming is the best way to see how the pieces fit together and to empower your youth to help generate resources from within (along with those solicited from without). Here are some ideas to get you started.

+ Fundraising Ideas:

A Framework for Developing Assets

+ Asset Mapping in a youth development context:
Based on research involving over 2 million young people since 1989, the Search Institute has identified “40 Developmental Assets” as a framework for mapping assets for youth development.

The 40 assets framework is not meant to be exhaustive, but helps shine a light on the resources “in your hand” and assess how best to utilize them. The 40 Developmental Assets are:

“concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people in our culture.”

Turn the Lights on

Turning the lights on means educating oneself about the realities of a community, beyond the obvious.

• A tool for the process: Asset Mapping, a process that helps you to identify existing resources/services rather than merely looking at the negative aspects of your community.

“Just imagine how communities feel when at the end of their needs assessment project, they find themselves confronted with a laundry list of all the things that are wrong with their local area. Rather, it suggests that community development should begin with a systematic assessment of the assets that exist in the community.”

What is your creative context?

+ What constraints make your situation formless, empty and dark?

• Formless: Building from scratch. Dysfunctional community, families, culture, churches. Broken lives.
• Empty: Insufficient funding, space, equipment, staff
• Dark: Confusion. No direction.

+ What evidence of the “Spirit’s hovering” do you see present in your situation? Share with your neighbor some of the assets that exist…

• In your youth & families
• In your neighborhood
• In your leaders
• In your own family

+ How have you responded to His Spirit? What words are you speaking?

The Model in Action 2: Jesus Receives an Offering

Few stories told in all 4 gospels. This is one of them.
Matt 14 / Mark 6 / Luke 9 / John 6

• 5,000 men, plus women and children.
• Jesus tells disciples: “Give them something to eat”
• The disciples didn’t get it. The masses were confused and hungry.
• But a boy with a bagged lunch understood, and his tuna fish sandwich fed them all.