Southwark Bahá'í Community

Young people should actively contribute to decision-making processes, and understand that their efforts will exercise greater influence when informed by the experiences and successes of others. In this way, they seek to maximize the effect of their efforts to serve humanity by placing their creativity in a framework of coherent and structured plans. This community building initiative is able to provide encouragement to its young members by giving them real responsibility for its affairs and imparting a profound sense of ownership of shared goals. Each person, whether young or old, listens to and learns from others: there is a tangible sense of moving forward together. The motivating impulse is one of love for humanity.

 

Consequently, we place great emphasis on the moral education our youth, with a focus on providing on-going opportunities for developing a sense of world citizenship and a lifelong commitment to serve humanity. Youth groups, facilitated by trained “animators” or facilitators, help youth to develop their latent capabilities and contribute to meaningful service in our community. The groups engage in learning, socialising, arts, culture, sports and service activities. Attention is given to enhancing their powers of expression, recognising the moral issues underlying everyday decisions and the moral implications of their speech and actions, developing friendships, withstanding negative peer pressure, and building unity and enhancing global citizenship.

 

The programmes affect the lives of families around the world and are generally conducted in small groups of youth from around 11-14 years of age at the local level. These initiatives seek to enhance the junior youth’s spiritual and intellectual capacities in order to prepare them to participate effectively in the affairs of their communities. It also provides them a multi-disciplined and multi-faceted perspective on life that will help to them make informed decisions and live enriching lives. If you are interested to get involved why not contact us.