Transcript:US Bahá’í Newsreel/Volume 18/No 2 (Winter 2009)
| Note: the text below this box was generated by a computer and will contain many errors. The computer generated transcript has been added to reduce the work of transcribing the talk, and enable some limited search capability. If you would like to help proofread the transcript you can edit this page and make corrections as you listen. |
Between the ages of 10 and 15 years old, kids undergo tremendous transition, they're not Children anymore. It's a very brief period of time that is so potent with potentiality and also at the same time can be set one on a misguided. Um, course they begin to grapple with big questions and the decisions they make can have a lifelong impact. They're beginning to really notice hypocrisy in the adults in their lives and they're beginning to look more towards peers and so if what they're seeing and what's available to them are examples that aren't healthy, then it's almost to be expected that they would fall into the same patterns that are in their environment. Most kids aren't equipped to make major decisions by themselves at this age, so they look to their friends, classmates and whatever is popular to lead the way. One of the biggest concerns at this age is fitting in. Everyone wants to be a part of something that's bigger than them. This is why gangs are so prevalent and this is why so many of them join gangs at this time, it's because they're really wanting to identify and peers are very important at that time, but peer pressure and feeling accepted is just part of the story adolescents face a range of challenges outside of school. Some feel alienated within their own families. Some face neglect verbal abuse, sexual abuse or physical abuse at home, middle school aged kids like they're brought up in and some people are brought up in an environment where, you know, if someone insults you, if someone hits you, you're expected to insult them or hit them back just automatically for many adolescents, their neighborhood and community isn't any safer than their home. They're facing gang violence, they're facing incarceration of fam members, they're facing stabbings, shootings, they're facing pregnancy. We as adults as parents tend to see this age group merely as problems to be contained or as problems waiting to happen because you're kind of left your at that awkward age where people don't want to deal with you, people want to tell you what you're doing wrong, you know, and you're kind of prickly and hard to deal with the news today reflects how our decisions and how our kids decisions are playing out a number of epidemiological studies have shown that with respect to depression, anxiety, hopelessness, suicide, alcohol abuse, mental illness in general, the rates are increasing dramatically amongst young people. But what if we saw adolescents as they want to see themselves? And what if instead of treating them as liabilities, we treated them as agents of change. I am kind, I am artistic, I am determined. I am powerful. I am respectful. I am honest. I'm creative. I am curious. I am friendly. It's not simply a time in which youth have to kind of be contained until they are ready to render service. The idea that that if we treat youth with the proper degree of respect if we provide them with the proper tools that they are ready today to play their role in the development of of a healthy community life. They have ideas and opinions that are just as valuable just as worthy as anyone else even may meet. What if we could equip them with the tools to make the best decisions they can and not based on our fears, but rather on our love and respect for who they are all over the country, concerned adults are running programs to steer middle schoolers on a good path. Members of the Baha'i faith have started their own programs with a unique approach. It's different from just the boys and girls club because it's got that spiritual component to it also and that's what makes it attractive to a lot of people. These behi inspired programs focus on character development through spiritual literacy. Spiritual literacy consists of the ability to understand the powers of the human heart, the powers of the human soul and to express those powers in service to humankind. All kids love to serve and like it's just focusing their energy in the right way and just coordinating them for them and they get on it, they get on board like really fast, the Baha'I faith has a name for this middle school age group, they call them junior youth. The junior youth programs are for kids from every background, you know, it focuses on principles that are true to all religions. Spiritual development isn't something that's talked about in the outside world, but it's it's who we are, you know, we are innately spiritual beings. These programs aim to bring out the spiritual nature of youth and empower them to serve in their communities. Were really trying to help them to have courage in their lives, to make the right moral decisions and to recognize that every single day they're being asked to make moral decisions. Those who facilitate and run these junior youth programs are called animators. It's a great term to describe what an animator is supposed to do or what they try to do to really, you know, take um you know, junior youth and to bring them to life from the countryside to the suburbs to the inner city animators are working to build the confidence and capacity of junior youth. These junior youth are discovering ways to strengthen the social fabric of their communities through service in the process. Junior youth are finding their voices, finding their strengths and finding their highest self. Junior youth, their noble and they're capable and that they have the capacity to really arise and make make huge changes in their lives and in the lives of others, as the writings of the Baha'i faith teach how your youth go is how your future goes. And so since the Children and the youth carry the seeds of the future, the health and development of Children and youth really are predictors of the health and development of the future social order in this newsreel, You will see how junior youth groups and animators are transforming their lives and communities. The notion that young people across the world face a cruel fate holds true for Chicago public school students week after week, the nightly news is a reminder of that. There's definitely a lot of crime that takes place in and around the schools regardless of the neighborhood in Chicago public school is a big issue. The Chicago public school system loses more than 30 students to gun violence each school year. While most of these deaths occur in the streets, arguments and tensions follow kids from their neighborhoods into the classroom and back to the street again, most Chicago school students say personal safety is their top concern. Next one, a group of young professionals in Chicago has taken it upon themselves to connect with middle schoolers on the city's south side, they are doctors, engineers and graphic designers During the work week on saturday mornings, they become mentors and friends to boys and girls, they otherwise wouldn't have a chance to meet. I think we're starting to feel a little out of touch, you know, going into our thirties and just kind of feeling like disconnected and um I think that's where kind of sprung out of, it's like what are we doing that is differentiating us from just you know joe punch card. You know, that just kind of goes and does his work and goes home and repeats the routine the next day. I must, I don't know. The group started with a grand vision to establish junior youth programs throughout the city and they took on a name that underscored their intended staying power. They call themselves Chicago. Youth animators are CIA animators is like we bring ourselves alive be ourselves and like sign after two years of working with local kids, the CIA animators know achieving their vision is going to take some time animating junior youth is a challenge. It requires dedication to developing one's own skills and a commitment to maintaining relationships with the kids themselves. CIA grew out of friendship were a group of friends that just met each other at parties and stuff and as we started talking, our conversations naturally lead to the same issues, the same fundamental issues which were what are we, what are we doing uh in life, what are we doing uh to affect the world. There is something very unique about the group of friends. Uh the willingness to help other people, I guess it's very unique that they're willing to take action not only to pray but also to do. As these conversations became more frequent. The group from all different spiritual backgrounds decided to start a study circle to give a more concrete shape to their discussions. They started by going through the first book in a Baha'i inspired training course called Ruhi. The book covers the spiritual nature of life and as we were doing that came this idea that we should do something that actually applies these principles to our lives. And so the main principles being the idea of virtues or spiritual qualities as being the meaning behind life. And so we wanted to help kids do the do that as well. What is the animation part of it entertaining? What do you think I'm here to put on a song and dance for you? Uh you think I add another day to my week, my five day work week to come here in the morning, entertain you know what I bring something to life. The Chicago youth animators found a middle school that was willing to host their saturday program. The school is on Chicago's south side in the Hyde park neighborhood. There's a lot of different cultures within a really short physical geographical area. Barack Obama's houses about a block and a half from where our school is but a block and a half the other way to the west is really destitute and there's a lot of crime in the area. I had to make a choice of getting out the gang or standing gang an idea, I made a choice to get out of gang, take care of my family. The Chicago youth animators were careful to tailor their program to offer a unique learning opportunity, which is the spiritual side and that's very important because it's what they're going to resort to when they're trying to make a decision and they're by themselves whether is not doing drugs or choosing the right career or whatever the decision is, they only have those internal tools to work with. They chose to use up a high inspired curriculum to achieve their goals. The curriculum includes a series of stories and fables that illustrate the use of virtues in daily life to frogs that got stuck in a bowl of cream and one frog, one frog, he was like um he gave up and drowned at the bottom of the cream and the second frog, like I'm gonna keep on going and everything. He got his way out of there. He built his stuff from the start that to never give up the Chicago. Youth animators say the curriculum shy is away from lecture these virtues that are in each of us, these virtues are the virtues are in each of these kids and we just, our job isn't to put the virtues in but to bring them out of these kids. So with that perspective it becomes a very different dynamic between facilitator and student. The facilitator doesn't have an authoritative role. The facilitator is just helping the kids uh is just helping the student work through what the virtues are and how they apply to their life. The CIA animators have found relationship building with the kids to be the key to appreciate those things. They say relationships are important to nurturing self esteem and positive behavior in adolescents who by their very nature yearn to belong every time they try something, you can tell that they're worried that you're either not going to like it or you're not gonna pay attention. And one of the things that we've been really good at, one of the great successes of CIA is that all the facilitators express how much they like the kids, the effect of knowing that they're going to be liked regardless of how they answer. A question has also been remarkable. These kids are really comfortable answering questions that they don't think they know the answer. They try, they will make guesses at really deep questions that I know that I would be, I would be intimidated by if someone were to ask me and these kids take them on and they're eager to put their hand up and they'd be called on and to and to see how they, how they do. They're willing to put themselves out there. It's because it's because they know that they are liked and they are valued for who they are, Katie She told me this poem and it was like something like that. Your heart burns with love and kind of people who called your parents stuff and then I try to do that and it's teaching me like love people, you know, they're doing your best to love them back and it's just like if I do it like I don't get that feeling like I did before when I first started seeing it and then like I am white people because they treated me but now I like them because they don't like me. I just try to like them back. Relationship building is a natural part of a project that was initially born out of friendship. The Chicago youth animators know their presence has an important influence in the lives of these junior youth. The sense of urgency every day that goes by is a day that you could be changing somebody's life. I'm pretty sure that we can all spare one or 2 Saturdays a month. There's a need for us to step up. I feel a lot more fulfilled by going there and participating and just hanging out with these kids on a saturday morning. And so that is for me just the spiritual um food that I need school, Everybody's gonna make bad choices regardless in their life. I mean I made bad choices everybody has, but it's it's up to you to change your life. It's not, it's not, no one else's choices. What elements glides have low self esteem and this new group group, it's like higher than a stronger than a tornado. I feel very good about myself. Well being together is really fun instead of just being at home and watching tv alone quite Brandon Ronald and go live in the Raleigh Durham area of north Carolina. They all participate in spiritual empowerment programs for junior youth, there are nine groups like this in the area, drawing middle school students from a variety of neighborhoods, ethnicities, religious backgrounds and belief systems. I feel like one of the challenges they are facing is forming an identity and finding out who they are and they have really not many outlets to figure that out through these programs. Junior youth are learning how to voice their concerns, make suggestions for improvements in their communities and take powerful action. I mean there's a lot of injustice in these communities and these junior youth are aware of that and when you ask them about justice, they can point out so many things in their community that just aren't fair and so like getting them to go out there and fix these problems like they enjoy that because it's benefiting them and it's benefiting their community. North Carolina's network of junior youth programs is the result of the young leading the younger the high college students, high school students and young professionals are the ones driving this growing movement here. It's really been the youth getting really excited. Um like almost every youth that you'll talk to either has their own Children's class region youth group or has been to one, you know, as an assistant animating junior youth groups gives youth and young adults a chance to serve simply for the sake of service. I mean, the junior Youth program is all about outreach. It's really all about seeing your community that you live in as your community. It's not your Baha'i community in your real community, it's one community and the whole world needs this junior youth programs in north Carolina haven't always been so robust. This now flourishing community initiative was ignited by a question on the minds of many local Baha'i youth, how can we improve the lives of those around us. Nabil and Jasmine Kleinhenz are college students at the University of north Carolina in Chapel Hill. They are also newlyweds. During his freshman year, Nabil applied for a scholarship program that required him to create his own service project. When it came time to choosing his service, he decided to start a junior youth group. I was just thinking like what would be one of the best ways I could serve and I, you know I thought of the junior youth program and it's just gonna be a group, you know, that's, that's all about fostering um you know this kind of group identity and and fostering unity and and justice within within their community. Nabil, Jasmine and their friend Karissa decided to go door to door in one particular apartment complex there they found kids and parents who were interested in establishing a group for junior youth, I feel like I was shy to talk to them but then I could start joining it, it's fun and you get to experience new stuff today. The group mobile and Jasmine run is thriving. They help the kids come up with projects that will both serve the community and be empowering. One of the group members is Karla Perez, she's an eighth grader who organized a trip to the local radio station. I was thinking about like um making people to join more. So I talked to my cousin and she gave, she gave me the idea too, so we started playing it and so that day we experienced the stuff, she really organized the whole trip. We just were there to give them the rides and to just be there to give him a ride home. And so it was really fun to see them on the radio. They're doing the DJs, they're calling people doing shout outs and it was really, really, I think excellent experience for them to have because I don't think they would have ever had it typically without having someone there who said, okay, you want to do this, let's do it. The number of junior youth groups grew rapidly when college students started bringing their energy and ideas together every semester they hold a conference called Calling All Youth in this area. We have a calling all youth meeting typically in the beginning of a semester and all the youth get together and we kind of just thrive off each other's ideas. These youth are so energized by the conference, they generate a plan of action for creating more junior youth groups all over the metro area. It's just been contagious. People are actually going out and trying out this service and like I said, if you get a taste of the service, you just have to come back and you you just have to dedicate yourself to it. Jamal Benjamin and joseph Kleinhenz are best friends and high school students, they serve as animators in the area, like all junior youth groups in the area, their group focuses on service projects, self expression, recreation and the development of talents as animators. Jamal and joseph see each kid as a treasure trove of virtues and gifts waiting to be developed. It's absolutely amazing just to see even the transformation of these kids from being, you know, some of our rough, you know, you turn them smooth, you know, you're actually you're doing the digging for those gems of inestimable value um in their mind, you know, you're finding that out, you're helping them progress and find themselves. Jamal and joseph eagerly support any ideas the junior youth have for service projects in their neighborhood. For example, the junior youth saw a need for a bench at the neighborhood basketball court and so they sold and delivered donuts to neighbors to raise funds. Like some people go over there and drink like burn the benches and took them away, they left their beer cans and anything out there. Now we don't have no bench, that's why we're trying to raise the money for the bench at the court. I think they always have these desires to fix the community. It's just they feel like they're maybe power as, as junior youth or maybe that they don't have the means to do it. But I mean once you, once you just give that little start, like they really take off with it. So in north Carolina, it's not just college and high school students dedicating time to junior youth, Mark and Perry have been married for eight years. They were drawn to each other because they shared an interest in working with adolescents. The second day after I had met Ozzy, uh I overheard her saying I really want to work with junior youth. It was like a little sticky note in my mind. That's a good sign. I can see how that would work. This is very important and I love to work with this age. I think they have so much energy and they're just so lovable. It's something that we share a passion for. They started by focusing on Baha'i kids and then realized their efforts were to exclusive junior youth of all backgrounds need attention. I've seen a lot of people get, get left out of their group or friends or something because they're like they have different beliefs or stuff like that. Sometimes like middle school, like the gossip gets worse. Like the fights get worse. You know, people just get more meaner and so they need to have this like to cooperate and come together and do activities with each other that they really need. The junior youth in this group use the arts to express themselves, talk about challenges and discover their talents Well first off we start off by like drumming and drumming circle and our workers out and then we have to say prayers, we play games, we do like a little work book and they, they might want to play a guitar and learned guitar and stuff because Mark teach them guitar and more like a guitar because they really like guitar and I like to play the drum and interact with everybody, allowing them to just sample different kinds of art, the beauty, the the sincerity, the shockingly truthful points of view. Uh that's just shine. Nicole ward is 16 years old, although not from a Baha'i family. She and her sister attended behind children's classes in their neighborhood. When she was a little older, Nicole was also part of a junior youth group. Both activities offer welcome relief in her neighborhood where violence and hopelessness are common and it was real, it was real bad when I was staying down there. So we really had nothing positive down there. So that was something positive for everybody. So it was kind of good for us to do that. The junior youth group was such a positive experience for Nicole. She wanted to give her peers a chance to reflect on their own virtues and gifts. Our bodies were made. Nicole now facilitates a steady circle for her friends and sister. Making them learn something new. Being positive positive thoughts and stuff instead of worrying about the negative so they can stay out of trouble because they trouble making someone keeping them out of trouble in their study circle. Nicole and her friends discuss the nobility of every human being, the importance of prayer and meditation and the purpose of life Becky double co facilitates the study circle with Nicole. Really wonderful to see her connection to this that this is an animating force in her life. You can even see that this person has become the spiritual leader of her family even though she's not the oldest but she has a wisdom and you can see in the family when they consult but what would Nicole think like Nicole? More young people in her neighborhood are eager to make positive change in their lives and in their community. The effects are far reaching and families are touched in the process. You got a lot of kids around here man that I mean good kids and they try to do the positive things but they have to have something looking forward to and so far, I mean the thing that you have been doing with the kids taking them to group meets and stuff like that, it's been a positive thing. Students and young professionals in the Raleigh Durham area continue to lend their energy in service to junior youth as junior youth continue to be a priority. Their gifts and contributions shine through and the transformation of their communities becomes a reality. They have so much energy, so much life naturally supposed to be learning and wondering and growing and developing into these spiritual beings. It's a joy. I I really just tell people try it, stick with it, open your eyes to the beauty of this age and there and if it's not for you it's not for you, but it's definitely for more people that are doing it right now. So those of you, you know those people out there who are thinking a little bit about it, like maybe I like to do it, do it, do it, they'll surprise you will shock you, they'll they'll take over your life with their their spirit and you love them, really love them. The Universal House of Justice has stated that there is a profound aspect to the relationship between a believer and the fund which holds true irrespective of his or her economic condition. When a human soul accepts Baha'i Allah as the manifestation of God for this age and enters into the divine covenant. That soul should progressively bring his or her whole life into harmony with the divine purpose. He becomes a co worker in the cause of God and receives the bounty of being permitted to devote his material possessions, no matter how meager to the work of the faith one more time. All together, the Baha'i fund is the lifeblood of the work of the faith. A constant flow is required to advance the cause of God to build his kingdom giving to the Baha'i fund is a privilege. The funds are the foundation of all that. The Baha'i community is doing Children's classes, junior youth programs, study circles and devotion. These are our gifts to humanity in these times of economic uncertainty. Our sacrifices are even more powerful. In a letter written in the midst of another economic downturn, FND expressed his hope that the friends will display a certain amount of faith and courage and not fear present economic conditions giving lavishly during times of plenty cannot be termed sacrifice. It applies only to our activities when economic difficulties seem to block the way whatever we sacrifice at present is to assure the welfare of humanity and ourselves as members of it in the future. We are assured that Shaggy Effendi will continue to pray for the american believers. We must all act now and answer the national spiritual assemblies call made in the feast letter of cuadrado and ensure a constant flow of the lifeblood of the cause. In these days of opportunity and challenge. Did he even run the turtle run in this story. It was the best he could do right. How did the turtle and the Rabbit? Because the Rabbit fell asleep. But what did the turtle do got stuck in a bowl of cream and one frog, one frog, he was like, he gave up and drowned at the bottom of the cream, it wasn't just because the rabbit because the rabbit fell asleep. He kept persevere. That's right. He kept at it kept working. You guys, you guys clearly know what severe means, which is really important. And the second flower, I'm gonna keep on going and everything. He got his way out of there. All right. So what's the, what's the next word? You guys had a question about impossible. Impossible. What do you wanna talk about? Impossible? It's not in the dictionary. Like we say praise everywhere that they pray every week. Everybody says a prayer every week shows appreciation for God, our love for him and thankfulness that he let us be here, he hasn't took our lives yet. So I think that we should do that and thank him for that calms me because like I take a test, I think about marking ology and her pep and the jokes and that makes me laugh. And I think about the prayers. It makes me feel good in the song. So I think about those and you know what? Last time I took a test, my math test, I aced it. And no Miss Kingdom is my social studies teacher and my home base teacher, she has this like little star stick with like all these feathers and stuff. It's like I think I'm gonna whammy Jammy stick. So like before I test he gives you a whammy jammy if you want one and she says it gives you good luck and it does, If you don't believe in it, it doesn't work. But if you do believe it works it does work. Do you have a sentence of mine? You're gonna say I am caring, I am determined and I am honest, funny, I'm beautiful, powerful. And what's that word when you want to say funny but not exactly funny. I don't know, I wouldn't be funny. I am respectful, I am creative and I am, I forgot the other one. I am patient. I am love lovely. I am right, I am powerful, I am open minded and I am beautiful. Well, I am like the best person around her who does gymnastics. I am a true friend and I put a lot of effort into what I believe in. I am just the type of person that you would like to be right, that's great. You're friendly
