How to empower young voices in civic life

What practical steps can faith communities take to empower young voices in civic life?

Almost every faith-based, non-faith-based, political communities and otherwise are dealing with this issue.  It’s not just for the survival of the organization but also to bring new life into an organization from  new, younger, and fresh perspective. This is also an age-old question that many organizations are asking themselves these days including the current organization I’m involved with which is the NFBPWC organization and also in BPW/Michigan.

To give you a bit of a background in what I’m involved with,  as a whole (national and international) BPW has been around for over 100 years.  It strives to help the working woman to support her in all aspects of life, especially on a professional level.   For the younger women, especially in university, they are offered a chance to get involved by running for an office and engage in activities with their elders and more. They also have representation in the greater organization as well.

I know in my personal life, I had an aunt who was very involved in the organization.  So when I was finally able to become active in the organization, she made sure I went to events locally, regionally, statewide and nationally.  Not only did I meet quite a few people as a younger member, but I gathered some mentors and extended family members along the way.

How has this helped the organization?   Well, it’s brought new members in as well as some excitement to continue on the legacy of the organization.  However, it is volunteer and sometimes life things happen.  This is also how it goes.

However the question remains the same, how do you bring the younger people in?

1. Let Youth  Become More Active in Your Church or Organization Leadership

This is what usually gets youth involvement.  They see everything their elders do.  They may even like or dislike some of the ideas or proposals that their elders do.  And in this role, whether it’s to represent a youth group or otherwise, they now can make those important decisions.

When it comes to other activities like family events, charity or other outreach, sometimes the younger voice has very creative ideas. They even become inspired to continue on or get engaged with activities in their community.  On the faith side, for religious services, they can lead prayers and participate in the planning as well as actual participation in the Sunday or special church days.

2. Provide education and training opportunities

In the organization I’m involved with there are numerous opportunities to participate in educational opportunities for leadership, life skills, and more.  They can be done at a conference offline or on Zoom or other platforms online.  It’s a great way to meet other people, share experiences and more. They might even come in the form of service-learning or travel opportunities.  So what would those topics be?

They would include the following:

Advocacy training

Community organizing

Public speaking

Conflict Resolution

3. Have Intergenerational Dialogue

Just as in the organization I’m involved with, it’s always good to have mentors.  This is where the older generation can come into play and teach the younger or even new members about the organization, expectations and more.  There can also be discussion topics as with the educational opportunities as stated above on upcoming voting issues, the importance of membership, the importance of volunteering and more.

This is also a good chance to work on projects with each generations including storytelling, community service activities (such as donating to the homeless), advocacy days (like going to the capital on an issues day), and more.  The more the generations can work together the better.

Hopefully from this article you can get some ideas on getting younger involvement in your church and/or other faith organizations.  There is probably already something in place that has been listed but has not been opened up to younger people.  If that is the case, perhaps this article is a good reminder for you to do so.