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Context Religious identity can be either a destructive or a constructive force. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and other people of faith can view their tradition as one which teaches violent isolation or one which encourages positive engagement with modernity. Powerful institutions embedded in a variety of traditions develop youth towards an anti-modern religious identity, often accompanied by hatred for andviolence towards the other. The Interfaith Youth Core seeks to shape the religious identities of youth towards constructive and hopeful engagement with the modern world. Vision The Interfaith Youth Core seeks to nurture and network a new generation of compassionate global leaders. Description of the Organization The Interfaith Youth Core is an international network of young people from diverse faith traditions. Our Core Leadership Team is based in Chicago, but our network extends to Brazil, Britain, India, Israel, Jordan, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka and other countries. We have run programs on four continents, partnered with organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, and presented our work at high profile venues including UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. We do leadership development programs with youth from different faith communities with an emphasis on helping them articulate the connection between faith and social action in their own religious tradition and understand the same connection in other religious traditions. History The idea for the Interfaith Youth Core emerged in June of 1998 at the United Religions Initiative Global Summit at Stanford University. A group of young people from several different countries and religious traditions found we had a common interest in engaging faith, service and diversity in an integrated way. We decided to discuss this idea more thoroughly at a separate conference. Three major interfaith organizations agreed to sponsor the conference - the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, the Interfaith Center of New York and the United Religions Initiative. The conference took place in June of 1999 with sixteen young people from four countries and six religious traditions. The foundations for an organization called the Interfaith Youth Core were agreed upon at that conference. The Interfaith Youth Core Model Interfaith Youth Core programs operate on a multi-layered model: 1) Intercultural Encounter, Social Action, Interfaith Reflection - All of our programs engage youth in an integrated process of intercultural encounter, social action and interfaith reflection. Often, this takes the form of a service-learning/service-leadership approach. We gather youth from different religious communities together to doa project like building a house or cleaning a river, and then we ask them to articulate in a community setting why doing service is important in their religious tradition. The result is that they research the impulses towards service in their own religious traditions and they develop a deeper understanding for other religious traditions through listening to people tell about the impulses towards service in them. Through these conversations, we hope that youth will see how religious traditions havemuch in common ("Service is important in all religions.") andon how each is unique ("The animating concept in Christian service is love based on the example of Jesus; the animating concept in Muslim service is human dignity based on the example of Prophet Muhammad.") 2) Ubuntu Approach - The African concept of 'ubuntu' speaks to the centrality of community in the life of the individual and the well-being of a society. The Interfaith Youth Core recognizes that people are nurtured by communities and they have responsibilities to communities. Moreover, we know that a basic teachingof organizing is to work in a manner which can mobilize large groups of people.Therefore, we work with youth groups in existing religious communities or faith-based organizations. Involving the youth group is a first step in involving the whole congregation. Our programs seek to strengthen the self-understanding ofexisting communities by helping them articulate their tradition to communities from other traditions. 3) The 25 - 15 Approach - Research shows that leaders of faith-based youth groups of teenagers are often young adults in their twenties. These young adults have a profound influence on the religious identities of the teenagers they work with because 15 year olds emulate towards 25 year olds. Interfaith Youth Core programs work with both the teenagers and their young adult supervisors. This gives the teenagers at least one person in a leadership position within their religious community to ask questions about their own faith tradition and others, strengthening the community by encouraging internal dialogue on religious subjects. Furthermore, it brings young adults of faith from different traditions into community with one another. The interfaith dialogue amongst these youth advisors is very rich, and we know that they are sharing their insights with the teenagers they work with. Projects Successfully Completed The Next Generation at the Parliament of the World's Religions - The Interfaith Youth Core worked with the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions to design the youth program, entitled The Next Generation, at the Parliament in Cape Town in December 1999. Over 7000 people from over fifty nations attendedthe event. The Interfaith Youth Core team arrived in South Africa well before the event for preparation and stayed afterwards to participate in the evaluation and follow-up process. Next Generation programs engaged 500 young people from 25 countries. They included visits by international youth delegates to the townships around Cape Town; theater presentations by youth groups from Japan, South Africa and the United States; and workshops on the social action projects different faith-based youth groups from around the world are engaged in. Harmony Build in Hyderabad - The Interfaith Youth Core partnered with Habitat forHumanity International (HFHI) to lead an interfaith youth service-learning project in Hyderabad, India in January 2001 with youth from Bangladesh, Guam, India, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. The Interfaith Youth Core designed the interfaith service-learning dimension of the week-long program. Our activities included theater presentations, journal writing, appreciative inquiry, and discussing faith-based poetry. They helped young people articulate the connection between their faith tradition and the service project of housebuilding. Projects Underway Chicago Action Project - The Interfaith Youth Core is building a sustainable interfaith youth project in Chicago that will be a model of interfaith youth work for ourinternational network and others. We are engaging the youth groups of six different religious communities and faith-based organizations in the Interfaith Youth Core model of integrating intercultural encounter, social action and interfaith reflection. Interfaith Youth Core staff involve the youth groups and their advisors in aprocess of deciding upon, designing and leading service projects inspired by teachings from religious traditions. The first project is a partnership with a senior citizens center. The Interfaith Youth Core facilitates an interfaith reflection component during each step of the process. Chicago Youth Advisors Action Group - The advisors of the different youth groups involved in the Chicago Action Project meet regularly to discuss their work as faith and interfaith leaders. Meetings have included a sharing and celebration of the cultures of different religious traditions, a discussion of faith heroes from differentreligious traditions and a discussion of the challenges and joys of working with teenagers in faith communities. SacredStories Project - The Interfaith Youth Core is working with the Ghetto Film School, Inc. to develop a series of short fictional films, written and directed by youth from the South Bronx, on how the sacred stories of the ancient traditions are lived in the modern world. The Interfaith Youth Core is providing educational resources on the different religious traditions as well as assistance with script-writing. A visit by Ghetto Film School participants to the Chicago Action project is planned in summer 2002, and will involve interfaith service-learning experiences led by youth involved in the IFYC Chicago Action group. The films will be ready by Fall 2002 and screenings are planned for New York City and Chicago. Spiritinto Action - The Interfaith Youth Core has partnered with Kashi Ashram near Miami, Florida to run two weekend-long Spirit into Action programs in 2001. Youth from six different faith traditions camped on the Ashram for the weekend and engaged in service activities ranging from working with people who have HIV/AIDS to cleaning a beach. Like the Harmony Build, the Interfaith Youth Core employed a service-learning approach, using activities to encourage the youth to articulate the connection between faith and social action in their religious tradition. Additionally, the Interfaith Youth Core recruited young people who were leaders in faith communities or spiritual practices to lead workshops in these areas. A young black preacher gave a sermon on Palm Sunday. A young yoga instructor led morning yoga sessions. Young musicians and martial artists shared how their art was a spiritual practice of their faith tradition. FutureProjects International Action Exchanges - Chicago will serve as a model for a network of cities around the world with Interfaith Youth Core Action projects. The Interfaith Youth Core will connect participants in these projects through international action exchanges, hosted by an IFYC project in one city and involving IFYC projects in other cities. These exchanges will serve as opportunities to do leadership development, deepen understanding of our own and others' faith traditions and strengthen relationships within our international network. International Conference on "Breaking the Cycle of Violence" - The Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) seeks to convene an international conference of its network titled "Images of a Peaceful Future". This ten day residential conference will engage youth leaders from five countries who have experienced or are experiencing violent identity-based (ethnic, religious or political) conflict. The purposeof the conference is to engage the question: "What will it take for our generation to be the ones who break the cycle of violence and conflict in our societies and the world at large?" A variety of methodological areas will be explored, including conflict resolution, youth leadership development, education, organizing and the arts. Participants will return home with 1) a strong global network of relationships; 2) a "toolkit" of methodologies; 3) a clearerunderstanding of identity-based conflict; and 4) concrete programmatic ideas for implementation in and between respective communities. Spiritinto Action Everywhere - The Interfaith Youth Core seeks to expand the Spirit into Action model developed with Kashi Ashram to other areas. These one-off programs can serve as the starting point for building a sustainable IFYC Action projectin that city. Interfaith Education Resources - The Interfaith Youth Core seeks to develop a curriculum that can be used in a wide range of IFYC programs, by other interfaith organizations, by religious communities and by schools and universities. The Divine Fire - Several members of the Interfaith Youth Core network have published pieces on matters relating to religion, youth and activism. We have proposed a book on the current state of the interfaith youth movement. Technology and Communications - An international network requires a means by which people from different parts of the world can communicate in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The Interfaith Youth Core anticipates designing a state-of-the-art website which will serve as an information bank and a means of communication for the IFYC network. We also hope to organize and moderate e-groups for various groups within the IFYC network. Staff Founding Director, Eboo Patel - Eboo helped to create the idea and organization ofthe Interfaith Youth Core in June 1998. His background is in teaching, organizing and academics. He is completing a doctorate in the sociology of religion at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. Eboo is a sought after speaker and writeron youth, education and religion. He serves on the Board of the International Interfaith Centre, the United Religions Initiative-UK and the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life; his essays have appeared in God Within, Global Uprising, Initiative and other publications; and he has given talks all over the world, most notably at the World Trade Center in Barcelona, the University of Cape Town, UNESCO Paris and Oxford University. Executive Director, Jeff Pinzino - Jeff has been with
the Interfaith Youth Core since summer 2000. Jeff has a Masters Degree
in Social Science from the University of Chicago. He has worked for
several community organizations in Chicago with a focus on housing,
education and youth issues. A popular poet and writer, Jeff has performed
at several venues in Chicago and has work published in Global Uprising.
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