Crossing Paths – Grades 6-8: Ages 11-13 and above
(11:00 am – 12:00 pm Sundays, September-May)

This course leads students through an exploration of various contemporary faith groups and seeks to work toward respect and understanding. Questioning is encouraged, and differences are encountered with open minds and hearts. We lift up the core pieces of other faiths, and we also compare and contrast those faith’s beliefs and practices with those of our UU faith. While the program is built around interfaith engagement, its focus is really on UU youth identity formation.

We strongly encourage our parents to come along on our visits. What better way to role model acceptance of our community members, educate ourselves a bit, and participate in some good old-fashioned interfaith goodwill?

Our Crossing Paths class is critical to our youth’s understanding of the basics of contemporary faith practices and the universal truths that they each encompass. This class helps our young people grasp the underpinnings of different faiths, clear up questions, and prevent misnomers so they can develop healthy relationships with the people they live, go to school, and work alongside.

Finally, Crossing Paths is an essential part of our students’ experience as they seek to create a personal credo in their teen years. Our Being a Teen (BATs) program for youth in 9-12 grade asks students to consider their own spirituality and search for truth as the beginning step in their lifelong spiritual journey. World religions may be addressed briefly in Being a Teen but are not taught explicitly. Having a working understanding of world religions will greatly enhance any young person’s experience in both writing a personal credo and being a religiously literate adult.

Evening Youth Programs
(offered September – May)

Our Whole Lives comprehensive sexuality education (OWL)

OWLs 8th and 9th Grades
This class will be held from 6:30-8:30 PM on the first and third Wednesday evenings of each month starting in September.

Our Whole Lives is a comprehensive sexuality program that helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives not only provides facts about anatomy and human development, but also helps participants clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality.

More information about the course: www.uua.org/re/owl

Being A Teen (BATs) – High School grades 9-12: Ages 14-18 
6:30-8:30 pm 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month

All Fellowship Youth in grades 9-12 (Ages 14-18) are enthusiastically welcomed and highly encouraged to join us in our 2024-2025 Being a Teen Program.

We hope that throughout this program, your young people will find a group of friends and supportive adults who can help them grow as individuals and as members of this faith community. Being a Teen has four different areas of focus each year:

· UU Identity- group and individual
· Self-exploration
· Life skills
· Healthy sexuality (including elements from the Our Whole Lives program).

We hope that your young people will want to participate in this program for as many of their high school years as possible!

Each year of the program has a specific focus for the classes that we split into small groups based on year (the rest of the group meetings will be as a large group). Our yearly goals are as follows:

· 1st year– UU Identity (focus on spiritual growth, finding a place at the Fellowship, what it means to be UU, etc)
· 2nd year– Mentorship (focus on personal growth, self-exploration, credo statement creation, mentor relationships) If you have attended our annual youth services, our second-year students are the ones who share their personal credos during this service.
· 3rd year– Social Justice project (focus on social justice action/service to the Fellowship and the community at large, putting our UU values into action)
· 4th year– Independent study (focus on leadership opportunities, preparing for adulthood/next steps into the world; will vary based on what your young person wants to focus on during this time)

This experience gives our youth the opportunity to continue forming their faith identity, do deep self-exploration, connect with Fellowship friends, and more deeply consider how they want to live their values today and as they grow into young adulthood.

The end of the year is celebrated by traveling and exploring our UU heritage together on our Annual UU Heritage Trip. There is a fee of $250 for youth who participate in our UU Heritage trip.

Please contact director of religious education, Kim Hartman ([email protected]), for more information.