Nourishing Community: Cultivating Fellowship and Vision in Youth Services

3 Modules
Image of 8 multigenerational people, smiling and laughing, and with a table of food and a barbecue grill on a rooftop on a sunny day with a bright sky and scattered clouds.

Welcome to 2024! Depending on your role, the last few weeks were a season for resting or holding down the safety nets that support young people in your community (maybe a little bit of both!).

Stepping into 2024 can be a whirlwind, from following up on unresolved 2023 tasks to re-engaging with your program community. Despite the potentially disorienting return to work, many of us take advantage of the new year to consider where we are, where we want to go, and resolutions that will help us get there. This new year, we invite you to participate in our Nourishing Community: Cultivating Fellowship and Vision in Youth Services series, published weekly in January 2024.

Inspired by the undeniable power of sharing a meal, this series looks at the work unfolding within the youth services field and figuratively asks: How are we setting the table? What new and different flavors must be included? How are we inviting people to join our table?

  • Part 1: In Setting the Table, we invite you to consider the potential within your current capacity, the purpose of your work, and the variety of tools, resources, and strategies to engage in work that is meaningful to you and your program community.  
  • Part 2: Cultivating the Flavors of Culture highlights the importance and benefit of grounding our efforts in culture, community, and connection.   
  • Part 3: On Fellowship grounds our work within often challenging and divisive environments. Despite hardship, we know our roles/programs contribute to helping our communities re/connect back to themselves. How are we holding space for people to stick around and come back to share another meal?    

Our inbox is open to your thoughts and responses, you can reach the team at community@youthcollaboratory.org. From our team to you and yours, happy new year, sanatuljadeed sa'eed1, maligayang bagong taon2, feliz año nuevo3, manuia le tausaga fou4, nił hózhǫ́ǫgo chʼídoohah5,  Bon Ane6, bonne année7. 🎉 

This toolkit was released as a newsletter series in January 2024. Learn more about new training and funding opportunities, news and policy updates, and how we can collectively strengthen outcomes for youth and young adults. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest delivered straight to your inbox.     

1 Arabic    
2 Tagalog    
3 Spanish    
4 Somoan    
5 Navajo/Diné    
6 Haitian Creole    
7 French

 

Focus areas
Building Community
Cropped portrait of young Black man preparing table setting in a home

Setting the Table

African family of three sitting at the tale and eating together during lunch time at home

Cultivating the Flavors of Culture

Happy group of multiracial friends having breakfast together and talking at coffee bar restaurant - United millennial people laughing and having fun while drinking hot coffee

On Fellowship