Youth and Young Adult Ministry Report, Fall 2017 – by Kim McNaughton

Festival of Faith, Smithers, April2017 - a successful event including youth. Much thanks to Brenda Donas and Kerry McNaughton (Youth leaders) for their help this event.

Youth at Conference May 2017 –We did not have a youth delegate attend at BC Conference General Meeting 2017.

Got Reconciliation? Regional YAYA Leaders Event, Winnipeg, June, 2017. I attended this leader’s event in Winnipeg, MB with other leaders from across the United Church. The event was funded by the National Church. The focus was on how best to support Indigenous youth. Having Indigenous Elders and leaders at our all our YAYA events is one way to address supporting Indigenous youth.

Rendezvous 2017 “Be The Church” August 2017 – National UC YAYA Event, Montreal, August, 2017. Participation: Three people from our Presbytery attended this event, myself, a youth and a young adult – Karissa and Nina Joseph and myself. The event: over 500 people attended from across Canada, the venue was the downtown campus of Concordia University. The event was focussed on showing how important our young people are to the United Church by encouraging them to be engaged, to use their voices and their actions to “be the Church.” Travel and costs: The idea of the bus fell through as not enough participants. I was to be a leader on the bus, however that did not happen when the bus did not work out. Two vans travelled from BC to Montreal with youth, young adults and leaders from the Lower Mainland; there was no space in the vans for the youth or myself so we flew. Cariboo Presbytery financially supported the three of us to go in the amount of $411 each. This covered the travel. I presented a workshop at the event thereby saving the cost of registration for myself. This important event was exciting,

May Retreat North, May 2018 – (BC Conf YAYA Leadership Team) – this YAYA Leadership Team met in September to discuss YAYA ministry, focussed particularly on the next 15 months in our Conference. In keeping with upcomingchange in our structures which includes moving towards working in clusters, the Leadership Team proposes the idea of two spring events to be held simultaneously May long weekend 2018, - one in the north and one in the south of our Conference, was discussed. The events will included shared planning, resources, and networking. The events will be connected, even to include connecting the participants will the event is on via technology.

May Retreat North may be held in Cariboo Presbytery – possibly Williams Lake or 100 Mile House. Pro Vision Funds will be applied for by Cariboo, Kamloops-Okanagan and Prince Rupert Presbyteries to help fund this event. At this time we are gathering information to budget. We would like to submit fund applications by Nov 5 deadline. Funds will be used for travel, venue, guest speakers, and food. The date will be May 19 to 21, 2018.

Evolve, November 2017 – upcoming event ....BC Conference YAYA event at Stillwood Conference Centre, Cultus Lake, BC. Please encourage youth to attend; they can be in contact with me to discuss financial support.

Financial Report – balance in the youth fund at Sept 30, 2017 is $1,425.33.

Facebook Page – Youth are on Facebook and the internet. It would be helpful to use this tool for communication.

Youth Minister Position for CaribooPresbtery- as reported by Bob Fillier at our recent Executive Meeting, this position is off the table due to upcoming changes and transition to new UC structure.