A Regional Church Serving Communities North of Boston
welcoming people of all ages, religious backgrounds, cultural origins, differing abilities, political views, and sexual orientations

 

 

Special Programs for Youth

 

 

 

Junior Youth Program

Grades 7 and 8 gather throughout the year integrating religious education, spiritual inspiration, community support and fun youth socialization. Youth are introduced to the larger UUA community through participation in day-long cons, Mass Bay District Youth events and more.

SHYP - Senior High Youth Program

(Grades 9-12)

Youth Advisor: Aileen Dashurova

The Senior High Youth Program (SHYP) is a safe place where youth come together and pursue the primary goals of community & spiritual development, social action, learning and leadership development. The weekly Sunday night meetings and special events are designed by youth and facilitated by a team of adult advisors. Recently, SHYP has been involved in awareness-raising about homelessness in the greater Boston area, fundraising for and volunteering at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. SHYP also plans at least one service for the church each year. Opportunities for wider involvement with other youth on a local, district, and national level have occurred through attending MASSive Con, the Spirituality Development Conference, the Leadership Development Conference and making connections with the denominational organization Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU).

Young Adult Community

"The Continental Unitarian Universalist Yound Adult Network (C*UUYAN) is a spiritual community of young adults (age 18-35 inclusive) within the Unitarian Universalist movement which provides leadership training and experiences for young adults, encourages the formation, growth and networking of UU young adult groups and fosters meaningful worship experiences within our association." Interested UUCR young adults are encouraged to contact Director of Religious Education Dashurova.

 

SHYP's (b)log

Visit our Blog where we'll be sharing news from our New Orleans trip!

Senior Bridging Service Sunday May 18

On Sunday May 18 we will honor the Graduating High School Seniors from our church community. We have been  blessed by having these youth in our congregation, many since they were young and some joining just over the past few years. Join us in honoring this important transition for our youth.

New Orleans

If there was a way to even begin to explain the magic, emotion and power of the SHYP trip to New Orleans…
Thank you to everyone who supported us during our Homeless Weekend, the major fundraiser for the trip, and who encouraged us, sent us off with food and treats, gave us gifts to bring to the Hope Haven School, and thought good positive thoughts about us during our journey, we thank you.   The youth worked diligently in oppressive heat and sun every day we were in New Orleans. They picked up trash, cleaned up the memories of washed away homes, raked, cleaned up classrooms, posted signs, cleaned out filthy dog and cat cages, walked dogs, held kittens, made “Cat Art” to give some privacy and cleanliness to a very overcrowded animal rescue facility. These youth were up in the morning any where from 4:45 a.m. to 6 a.m. and had days that followed of 13+ hours of driving or hours of very hard work. They made their own breakfasts, lunches and most dinners. Many nights we did a worship, however some nights as soon as we cleaned up from our meal or arrived “home” after an adventure meeting people and enjoying a healing New Orleans, we all fell fast asleep!  Worship Arts has asked SHYP to lead a worship this summer focused on the New Orleans trip. Please feel free to talk with any SHYP youth who participated about the trip. It has changed our lives!

Hannah Hildreth, Chris Buckley, Nick Russo, Meg Kilkelly, Nate Fisher, Tim Conley, David Murray, Ellen Garrison, Louis Roberts, Sam Beckwith, Ben Hitchcock, Joe Santo.  Another very loud thank you to Curtis Johnson, Sandy Olney and Gary Biadasz, our youth advisor team that spent countless hours driving, supporting our youth in every moment and working incredibly hard themselves on every project we were given to accomplish. We prayed together, drove together, and worked endlessly to renew New Orleans together. We safe guarded your youth together, we laughed together and we very much cried together. I have done youth work for over 15 years, some of that was with Sandy and some has been with Curtis. This youth advisor team accomplished something together that is so very difficult and is rarely achieved and I thank them very much.