Junior Friends

Back in 2012, families with teenagers started attending University Friends Meeting. In the years that followed, we were able to conduct a lively Junior Friends (JF) program. Participants in the program have moved on into adulthood, so I won’t name them, but I would like to describe how we conducted the program.

At first, the teenagers and an adviser would simply sit in a circle in the social hall while the adults went to the worship room for worship. We would begin with some silence, then have some sharing about how things were going in their lives. Ideas emerged about what the teens wanted to do together and two advisers were designated (Kris Leinbach and me, Rick Ells) to help the program happen. Meeting offered a room in the lower level of the building with an external door for the JFs. One of the JFs promptly painted a mural on the wall of the room of a person glowing with Inner Light. Our goal was to connect with other young people from Quaker backgrounds to spend time together in the manner of Friends.

Other goals: To do worship or worship sharing of at least a half hour each time we meet to enrich and affirm our own lives and our relationships with each other. To support each other in fulfilling the leadings that come out of our time together. Ideas for activities came up each time we gathered. The advisers worked with the parents to arrange rides, materials, and other details. We came together to listen, share and enjoy eachother’s company.

Here are some of the activities the group did:

-A visit to Discovery Park. Parents provided rides and a sumptuous picnic lunch and then relaxed around the picnic table while the JFs went off together to find a peaceful spot overlooking Puget Sound for worship sharing.

-A visit to North Seattle Friends Church (a pastoral Quaker church). The JFs wanted to see what other Friends meetings were like, so we went to NSFC to participate in one of their Sunday services, complete with a sermon, singing, and witnessing. Afterwards, our JFs went to a nearby park and shared their thoughts on what they experienced.

-Fundraising for a Guatemala trip. In 2014, the JFs wanted to raise money so some could participate in a trip to Guatemala led by Joe Snyder through PROGRESA, a Quaker Guatemala Scholarship Program. The first fundraising project was a Latin American-themed banquet. Members of UFM donated ingredients; the JFs did the cooking, setup, serving, and cleanup, raising over $1,000. A second project shortly after was “Mothers’ Night Out.” For a small fee, parents could drop their children off at UFM between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday evening, with the JFs providing childcare to give the parents time for a special night out. Overall, UFM and the JFs raised over $3,000 to support the trip.

-Walkabouts. If no activity was planned, the JFs, with their advisers, would just take long walks in the neighborhood, pausing occasionally to do thoughtful sharing.

-Connecting. The JFs quickly built up their own network among other JFs in North Pacific Yearly Meeting. Advisers helped the JFs connect with quarterly meetings, yearly meetings, and ski trips.

Keys to the success of this JF program included having multiple families in Meeting with teenagers, having parents willing to help support the activities while letting the JFs have the lead, keeping to a simple program welcoming mutual sharing and decision-making, and having two diligent advisers serving as liaisons between the JFs and the larger Meeting.

By 2016, our group of JFs were moving on to college and elsewhere and the program slowly faded out. In the decade since, they have gone on to their own futures, including becoming a sports fashion photographer, an automobile mechanic, an environmental activist, and a political analyst. We like to think that the years we spent together were meaningful and affirming, in Quaker ways, to them as they made their way into their lives.

Rick Ells is a longtime member of University Friends Meeting in Seattle. A retired web developer, he now spends his time writing poetry, doing nature photography, and studying climate change. He lives in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle.