White House chooses initiative on young people as 'Promising Practice'
10/1/1998 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. by United Methodist News Service A United Methodist Church program focusing on the needs of young people has been singled out for its work by President Clinton's initiative on race.
The Shared Mission Focus on Young People, a four-year churchwide program, has joined the ranks of 500 Promising Practices cited by the White House as models for improving race relations.
The church program's office received a call about two months ago from White House staff, Director Linda Bales recalled. "President Clinton had heard about the Shared Mission Focus and they wanted more information on it, thinking that it might be appropriate to be named as a Promising Practice."
After an application process, the churchwide effort was chosen as a Promising Practice. Information on the program is available on the World Wide Web site of One America: The President's Initiative on Race (http://www.whitehouse.gov/Initiatives/OneAmerica/Practices/).
"The reason we were chosen for this is we have funded 27 pilot projects in the United States and outside the U.S., and several of them focus on eradicating or addressing racial issues," Bales said.
The Web site highlights two of those projects. One involves efforts by Chinese United Methodists and the Chinese Methodist Center Corp. in New York to deal with despair, loneliness and low self-esteem in Chinese-American youth. The other project is Youth Empowered for Service, Survival and Self-esteem (YESSS), a program of Hobson United Methodist Church and Brentwood United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn. It works with at-risk youth in the Nashville area.
The Shared Mission Focus on Young People also works with other United Methodist initiatives: the Hispanic Plan, the Native American Comprehensive Plan, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, the Communities of Shalom, the Restorative Justice Ministries Institute, the Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty, and the Substance Abuse and Related Violence Program.
"All of those initiatives address racism in some form or fashion," Bales said.
All of the Shared Mission Focus' pilot projects will be notified about the program's designation as a Promising Practice, she said.
Whenever the church is dealing with issues of diversity and eliminating racial barriers, Bales said, "we would like to be part of that in terms of holding up some of these pilot projects as models."
"We may build on this distinction to lift up the fact that there are dynamic programs in the church that are being intentional about addressing issues of race, and they're focusing on young people - youth and young adults," she said.
When evaluating grant proposals, the Shared Mission Focus looks at how programs deal with racial issues. Each project is asked to explain how it would embrace diversity and be culturally sensitive to the areas and people they're serving, Bales said.
The Shared Mission Focus on Youth was mandated by the 1996 General Conference, the top lawmaking body of the United Methodist Church, in an effort to reorder the denomination's priorities and concentrate on the needs of people ages 12 to 30. The $3 million initiative aims to enable young people to become full participants in church life and work.
The initiative is guided by a 19-member team of youth and young adults from the United States, Africa, the Philippines and Sweden. It also has about 11 resource people from the denomination's general agencies.
The initiative's selection as a Promising Practice was announced to the team at its semiannual meeting, held Sept. 11-13 at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
In other business, the team also:
· Heard presentations on two pilot projects. One of the projects, The School of the Spirit, is a program at Broadway United Methodist Church in South Bend, Ind. The church has hired a program coordinator to develop a school for neighborhood youth. Four young people, called "Animators," are serving as key outreach people, contacting youth who have a desire to teach a skill or develop a trade. The Animators are helping make that happen. The other project, Promoting Reconciliation Among Youths, is an effort by the Liberia Annual Conference to make available trauma counseling for young people suffering from the after-effects of war, and supporting young people who want to return to school.
· Met with Aileen Williams and Trina Bose, with the churchwide Connectional Process Team (CPT). The CPT was mandated by the 1996 General Conference to develop a "transformational direction" for the denomination beyond the year 2000. The Shared Mission Focus team members participated with the CPT representatives in a dialogue session on the future role of the initiative.
· Discussed efforts to have young people participate in the 2000 General Conference, the top legislative gathering of the United Methodist Church.
· Discussed plans for a consultation with representatives from United Methodist seminaries in the fall 1999. The event will explore ways to strengthen theological education for ministry with youth and young adults.
· Discussed the results of two issue forums held in Washington -- a May 25-26 meeting focusing on violence and an Aug. 6-8 session on substance abuse. Future forums will be structured differently, Bales said. Teams will be sent into the local community to focus on the unchurched and "once-upon-a-time church kids" to explore their thoughts on how the church can become more relevant to them.
The Shared Mission Focus team's next meeting will be Feb. 18-21, at a site yet to be chosen. The event will bring together representatives from all 27 of the initiative's projects, Bales said.
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