Youth Empowerment Programs

Recent messages from the Baha'i Universal House of Justice, and our Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly focus on

•        "community-building efforts in clusters throughout the country, hopeful that it will inspire youths everywhere to enter this promising and immensely rewarding arena of service."

•      "The unique and remarkable ability of the junior youth spiritual empowerment program to 'shape character and bring forth the praiseworthy qualities latent in junior youth... to release the deep reservoirs of commitment to significant social change.'”

•     " The merit of the junior youth spiritual empowerment program lies, first and foremost, in its effectiveness at enhancing the power of expression and the quality of spiritual perception within its participants and in assisting them to develop the capabilities necessary for a life of meaningful service to their communities."

How does this work in a wide community, such as Lake and Cook counties in Northeast Minnesota, where there are no Baha'i children or youth (as of January 2013)?

 

In fact, Junior Youth Empowerment Programs in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. often involve young adults who are not Baha'i, but who are trained Junior Youth Animators. 

Among the core activities, classes often begin in neighborhood homes, sometimes hosted by parents who are not Baha'i.  A systematic sequence of courses and books, including community-building practices,  begins with children's classes, first through third grades.  

In Silver Bay public schools, I've noticed fourth graders already showing passion for leadership, bringing spiritual qualities into their artwork, and getting involved in community.  Many teachers do a good job getting root spiritual principles across, and instilling a passion for community service.  Where is it OK to ask about spiritual experience and beliefs?   

By eighth grade, leadership and mentor-ship are well established in science, math, and creative arts. Many high school students have strong passions about current social justice issues that require urgent action.  

Baha'is have resources.  Here are links to “Make Peace, Build Community”, a Facebook page and a blog.

http://www.facebook.com/makepeacebuildcommunity

http://makepeacebuildcommunity.org/tell-me-more/

Education Under Fire

The Baha'i International Community wants you to get involved in a current social justice crisis in Iran.  Click the link below to a website called Education Under Fire. The opening screen presents an open letter by two Nobel Peace Prize recipients, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor.  Please investigate the other tabs at the top of that web page.

In brief, the latest in an ongoing series of human rights violations by the Government of Iran against the Baha'i Faith is  denial of access to higher education.  Faculty and students of the Baha'i Initiative for Higher Education have been imprisoned.  Imagine, for failure to recant your faith in God, being denied all civil rights, denied access to jobs of any kind, and  the likelihood of forced entry into your home and imprisonment for any kind of group social engagement with a Baha'i.

Not only Baha'i s are subject to abuse.  Another current protest initiative has been launched on behalf of an Iranian Christian,  Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been found guilty of apostasy by the regime's courts.

http://www.educationunderfire.com/nobel-laureates-letter.php

Baha'i Prisoners of Islamic Republic of Iran

Here is a link to Baha'i International Community News.
American Baha'i communities at all levels have had many years of support by members of Congress passing resolutions condemning the persecution of Baha'is in Iran.  The latest effort by the Baha'i International Community pleas for justice to the highest judicial authority of Iran for the Seven Prisoners of Yaran.  Many more Baha'i prisoners are unaccounted for.

http://news.bahai.org/