In January, we met with a representative from Faith in Community Scotland (FiCS), an organization giving refugees and asylum seekers a platform to speak about their challenges and the treatment they’ve received from the United Kingdom’s Home Office. As newcomers representing the Young Adult Volunteer program in Scotland, we were excited to learn more about migration in Glasgow and the UK. The representative began our meeting with this sobering truth: All of the invited migrants refused the invitation because of their vulnerable status. In the parishes where we accompany the Church of Scotland, we are privileged to work with organizations attempting to bridge race, class and citizenship status.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s ecumenical, faith-based Young Adult Volunteers (YAV) program is taking steps to embrace equity and inclusion in its recruitment and programming. As part of this endeavor, YAV teamed up with World Mission from April 30-May 3 to hold a consultation with people of color at the Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat Center in New Mexico.
Many individuals and families are just one paycheck away from homelessness, explained Rachel Eliser, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) serving with Safe Parking LA, a nonprofit committed to providing a safe and secure place for vehicle dwellers to sleep. The Safe Parking LA program is modeled after programs in other cities in California, including Santa Barbara, San Diego and San Jose, as well as communities in Washington state and Oregon.
Today, several congregations close to Stony Point Center, many from the Hudson River Presbytery, will host the 2018-19 YAV class for Commissioning Sunday. This day acts as a reminder to both the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) and our Church that we do not go alone in God’s mission.
You won’t go to India to do something an Indian cannot do,” the Rev. Thomas John told me. He was the site coordinator for the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program in India, and I was a college senior, interviewing to serve as a YAV on the other side of the globe. I don’t think I had any delusions of single-handedly transforming the world, but I was surely guided by a desire to help, to contribute, to be of service. That was in 2002. Today I serve as site coordinator for the YAV program in Colombia, and I encounter those same motivations again and again in current applicants.
Presbyterians do mission in partnership. For the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, now celebrating its 25th recruitment season, partners are at the heart of the program’s success.
Los jóvenes adultos voluntarios (YAVs por sus siglas en inglés) participan por un año de servicio basado en la fe, en más de 20 lugares en todo el mundo y en los Estados Unidos, de19 a 30 años de edad, acompañando a las agencias locales, trabajando para abordar las causas fundamentales de la pobreza y la reconciliación, mientras explora el significado y la motivación de su fe en una comunidad cristiana intencional con sus compañeros y mentores durante un año académico que va de agosto hasta julio.
When Don Stribling looks at the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, he sees an experience that challenges the hyper individualism that pervades much of today’s religious practice.
Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) engage in a faith-based year of service in over 20 sites around the world and in the U.S. YAVs, ages 19–30, accompany local agencies working to address root causes of poverty and reconciliation while exploring the meaning and motivation of their faith in intentional Christian community with peers and mentors for one academic year, August through July.
