Our Youth

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CREATING OUR FUTURE YOUTH (COFY) is our youth advocacy movement raising awareness around issues that mean most to today’s youth. We invite related-issues organizations to join us in our mission to organize, support, and train student youth groups in how to address and respond to social issues.

 Student group offerings (starting 2022)

• Peer to peer educational programs about prevention of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse
• Safe places for young people to share and address past and current abuse situations, to learn how to say “NO!” and how to ask for help.
  • It  is frequently challenging for a child or teenager or even a college student to go to an adult authority figure to report abuse. It can even       be dangerous.There have been many examples when a young person has gone to the police or other adult authority, with the abusing parent or caretaker denying the abuse and being believed by the authorities, and then greatly exacerbated abuse ensues.
  • In many date-rape situations where a young woman has been rohypnoled (a “date rape” drug) in a bar or college party, she is chastised for       drinking, called a slut, etc. If instead, a student could go to a peer group, and have a that group go to adult authorities, it would elicit a       different kind of response.
• College and high school peer-based, organizing tours
• Self-worth workshops & training to lead such workshops: It is a profound gift to be able to change one’s inner wound stories while still a teenager and avoid the self-demoting relationships and lifestyle choices that all too often go along with poor self-esteem; plus being able to open oneself to achieving one’s visions, projects and goals. I am confident that high school and college students can learn to effectively lead Self Worth healing workshops and journeys.
• Coming-of-age rituals
• Whole Being Training core teachings applied in weekend workshops, summer camps, and experimental learning and training projects
• Student-run childcare training programs in how to create safe and cozy environments for children and minimize parental-caused wounds
• Time, space, and training to choose other projects the students feel called to take up
• Local, regional, national, and international coordination modeled after United Religions Initiative

 Creating Our Future student groups would provide:

• Educational programs about prevention of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse
  • This would be a safe place for students to share their abuse situations, to learn how to say “NO!” and how to ask for help.
• Safe places to address current sexual and physical abuse situations:
  • It is frequently challenging for a child or teenager or even a college student to go to an adult authority figure to report abuse. It can even       be dangerous. There have been many examples when a young person has gone to the police or other adult authority, with the abusing parent or caretaker denying the abuse and being believed by the authorities, and then greatly exacerbated abuse ensues.
  • In many date-rape situations where a young woman has been rohypnoled (a “date rape” drug) in a bar or college party, she is chastised for       drinking, called a slut, etc. If instead, a student could go to a peer group, and have a that group go to adult authorities, it would elicit a       different kind of response.
• College and High School peer-based organizing tours:
  • We found with the original Creating Our Future that student-to-student organizing was enormously effective and empowering and was welcomed on just about all campuses.
• Self-worth workshops & training to lead such workshops: It is a profound gift to be able to change one’s inner wound stories while still a teenager and avoid the self-demoting relationships and lifestyle choices that all too often go along with poor self-esteem; plus being able to open oneself to achieving one’s visions, projects and goals. I am confident that high school and college students can learn to effectively lead Self Worth healing workshops and journeys.
• Developing coming of age rituals:
  • Akin to Native American vision quests, perhaps at summer camps, where students would take Self Worth healing journeys, and other activities that would support them in developing their personal and unique visions as to how they wish to be of service [to humanity, their communities, and/or the environment].
  • We experimented with such rituals, minus the Self Worth work, which was unknown at the time, that were facilitated by Anna Halprin trained facilitators, who established parameters within which our summer camp students could develop their own unique rituals.
• Whole Being Training core teachings applied in weekend workshops, summer camps, experimental learning and training projects.
• Student run childcare training programs as part of high school - like home-education classes – as in how to create safe and cozy environments      for children and minimize parental-caused wounds.
• Time, space, and training to choose any other projects the students feel called to take up
• Local, regional, national, and international coordination modeled after United Religions Initiative