YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists) is the youth organization that exists within the UUA (the Unitarian Universalist Association) which is the orginization of Unitarian Universalism in the United States of America. YRUU is an organization run by youth, and one of the pillars of YRUU is youth empowerment.

Structure

The YRUU structure is divided into 3 sections, local organization, district/regional organization, and continental organization. The age range at every church changes, but the accepted continental age range for youth is 14-20.

Local orgnization in YRUU and in UUism takes shape in youth groups, with different orginizational styles and age groups. Some congregations have youth-led youth groups, some churches have youth advisors leading youth group, and some churches have no youth group at all.

District/regional organizing usually takes place on a committee of people elected at district/regional conference. These committees (commonly called District Youth Steering Committees, Youth Adult Committees, District Youth Councils) are in charge of planning district/regional conferences, making rules or by-laws and changes to those rules or by-laws, ensuring that communication is strong across the district/region and other things.

Continental originization usually is in the form of continental conferences, such as white allies conferences, DRUUMM YaYA (Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries Youth and Young Adults) conferences, YRUU social justice conferences, and many others. At the continental UU meeting each year, General Assembly, a Youth Plenary is held, at which the youth stance on various issues facing the denomination is discussed.

Youth Council

YRUU's governing body is called Youth Council . Youth Council is a body of youth and adults that meet once a year, and make decisions for YRUU. Their responsibilities inculde passing resolutions, changing YRUU by-laws, deciding who receives Y*FUUD grants (grants YRUU gives out to organizations that apply), participating in anti-racism/anti-oppression trainings and other workshops. Youth Council is made up of:

One Youth Council Representative (YCR) from each UUA district and CUC (Canadian Unitarian Council) region.

A junior high transitional age range representative

A senior high transitional age range representative

A Canadian at large

Many Adults at lage (6-8)

The Working Action Manager (WAM)

The Continental Social Action Coordinator (C*SAC)

The People of Colour Caucus

Steering Committee

Youth Office staff (Youth Programs Director and the YRUU Programs Specialists)

Steering Committee

Steering Committee is elected at Youth Council every year to be the governing body of YRUU that will meet when all of Youth Council cannot. They meet four times each year, and come to Youth Council, which they plan.

Youth Conferences

These are planned by district Youth Councils, and generally involve the convergence of a number of youth from several churches in a district upon a single church for the weekend. They are often themed; examples of themes include social action, elections (for the district youth conference), and leadership or spirituality development. The structure of conferences varies by region, but they generally last approximately one weekend, and have youth-planned workshops and a nighttime worship.

Beliefs

YRUU actively and mindfully adopt the 7 Unitarian Universalist priniciples, and their many goals, and also have a mission and goals. The UU principles and goals can be found at http://www.uua.org/aboutuua/principles.html.

Other Sites to Visit

UUA Website

YRUU Website

Other Pages to Visit

Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalist Association

District YRUU Web Pages

Pacific Central District- Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii

Pacific Southwest District - Southern California, Arizona, Nevada

Florida District - Florida, southern Georgia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands