A Young People’s And Young Adults’ Strategic Plan
The following is a draft of a Young People’s and Young Adults’ Strategic Plan, written by a group of young and young adult leaders. It is to go along with the new goal about young people and young adults (see page 7 of this Present Time) adopted at the 2017 World Conference of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities.
The RC Communities have worked for many years to make RC accessible to young people and young adults. (For the rest of this document, we will refer to young people and young adults together as younger people.) We have succeeded in some places, and there are many strong younger leaders in our Communities. Much of this is due to work done by younger leaders, the International Reference Person, and a group of dedicated allies.
We are proposing the following comprehensive plan to strengthen younger people’s work, increase the numbers and leadership of younger people, and make younger people’s work central in the RC Communities. Eliminating the oppression of younger people is crucial to the work of the RC Communities. Younger people will play a key role in eliminating it. We are also committed to doing this with adult allies.
This is a detailed plan that we think will move the work forward. In the next year we will put out a shorter version of the plan. We will also write articles that discuss in more detail the proposed theory and policy.
No single RC Community is ready to take on [undertake] every piece of this plan, but each Community, and any individual, can take on parts of it.
CHALLENGING INTERNALIZED OPPRESSION AND RECLAIMING OUR POWER
We will challenge any internalized oppression that holds us back from making the RC Communities more welcoming to, accessible to, and inclusive of younger people. We will discharge any discouragement attached to the RC Communities and RC adults. We can decide not to wait for younger people’s oppression to be eliminated and instead build the RC Communities we want, and work with adults to do it.
We will challenge and discharge any internalized oppression that stops us from building relationships with adult leaders and allies, and any feelings that make us distrust or move away from adults. We will take charge of building relationships with adults, training good allies, and working together with RC leaders.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
We can work with our RC teachers and Reference Persons to create individual plans for our RC leadership. Three key ways to develop leadership are to have regular Co-Counseling sessions, teach and assist in teaching RC, and lead workshops.
We need more younger people who are able to lead day-long, overnight, and weekend young people’s and young adults’ workshops. We will work with local and Regional leaders to schedule workshops led by local younger people. If no younger people are ready to lead them, they can be led by allies. Leaders should be chosen in consultation with the International Liberation Reference Persons (ILRPs) for Young People and for Young Adults.
When the ILRP for Young People or for Young Adults leads a major workshop, she should bring with her one or two other younger leaders. These assistants will support the workshop and the ILRP; build relationships with local younger leaders; and, over time, begin leading workshops themselves. Having Regional Reference Persons (RRPs) or other Reference Persons at the workshop will add additional resource and allow these Reference Persons to track the local work and build connections with younger people.
LEADERSHIP SUPPORT TEAMS
The ILRPs for Young People and for Young Adults will each have a leadership support team that will work with them to implement this Strategic Plan. Being part of this team will help younger people take leadership. The ILRPs can also add allies to the team. The young people’s team will have a parallel team of allies.
By the end of 2018 we will meet at a workshop to begin building the leadership support teams. The ILRPs for Young People and for Young Adults will consult with the International Reference Person at least every six months to review progress.
STRENGTHENING YOUNGER PEOPLE'S WORK
Each younger leader or upcoming leader is encouraged to build at least one Co-Counseling relationship with another younger person. (Where possible, a young person should do this with another young person, and a young adult should do it with another young adult.) They should Co-Counsel regularly—in person, by phone, or online. It might make sense to do three-way sessions. We can work to trust each other and take each other seriously. We can support each other in our re-emergence.
Each younger person is encouraged to build one or two (or more) regular Co-Counseling relationships with an adult ally. Younger people are also encouraged to build relationships with RC leaders in their Communities and constituency groups. We can work on any feelings that get in the way of building peer relationships with adult RCers.
Younger people need age-based constituency workshops to help us strengthen our relationships with each other and develop our understanding of RC theory and practice. Annual open young adults’ and young people’s workshops will be held in different places to bring together those of us in various parts of the world. We can ask the Re-evaluation Foundation for funding, so that every younger person can get to one of these workshops. We will have International leaders’ workshops at least every two years and may have annual leaders’ workshops in several locations.
YOUNGER PEOPLE IN CONSTITUENCY AND COMMONALITY GROUPS
In alignment with RC’s work on eliminating oppression, each major constituency or commonality group should have a team (when possible consisting of an ally, a young person, and a young adult) to think about younger people in that constituency or commonality group. The job of the team could include the following:
- Being in communication with any younger people in the constituency or commonality group, connecting them with local work for that group, and assisting them to have Co-Counseling sessions within the group
- Communicating with younger people about constituency or commonality workshops, encouraging their attendance, and supporting them to communicate with the organizer or leader before the workshop about how to set things up well for younger people
- Making sure that the younger people attending these workshops have allies
- Making sure that a discharge time/topic group/meal table is convened at every workshop so that everyone can discharge about young people’s and/or young adults’ oppression (the team can lead the group or support others to lead it)
- Connecting with younger leaders in the constituency or commonality group and helping them build relationships among younger people in the group
- Being in regular contact with the ILRPs or International Commonality Reference Persons (ICRPs) and other constituency or commonality leaders about how to increase the number of younger people in the constituency or commonality group
- Making sure ILRPs or ICRPs and other constituency or commonality leaders know the importance of younger people taking leadership in the constituency or commonality group and how to support the younger people who are active in the group
- Encouraging and supporting the relationship between young people leading in a constituency or commonality group and the ILRP or ICRP of that constituency or commonality
REGIONAL AND LOCAL YOUNGER PEOPLE'S DEVELOPMENT
When possible, each Region or other location will have a team of people (when possible, consisting of at least one ally, a young person, and a young adult) to think about increasing the number and strength of younger people in that Region or other location. Their job could include the following:
- Being in communication with all younger people in the Region or locality
- Supporting the younger people to get regular sessions
- Making sure that discharge about younger people’s oppression happens regularly at all Community activities, including at every workshop, either by leading it or supporting others to lead it (when younger people can do so, they should be involved in leading or supporting these activities)
- Creating spaces for adults to discharge on the oppression of younger people, on being effective allies, and on having more younger people in their Region or Community
- Training more adult allies
- Making sure that RRPs, Area Reference Persons (ARPs), and other local leaders are informed about the younger people in their Communities; strategizing with them about how to support the younger people and increase their numbers
- Encouraging and supporting the relationships between younger leaders and their ARP and RRP
- Strategizing with RC teachers who have younger people in their classes about how to make things go well for them
- Thinking about local, Regional, and International workshops that would make sense for younger people to attend and strategizing about how to get them there, with the support they need
- Encouraging and supporting the relationships among younger people in the Region or other location
- Making sure that, whenever possible, regular gatherings/support groups/classes for younger people are happening
Note: the ILRPs for Young People, for Young Adults, and for Allies to Young People will help the local teams be connected and support one another.
YOUNGER PEOPLE IN COMMUNITIES WITHOUT STRONG YOUNGER PEOPLE'S WORK
Communities that already have active younger people’s work can organize to support younger people who don’t have a younger people’s class or support group near them. Younger people in these Communities can attend workshops in the Communities lacking active younger people’s work.
Younger people in Communities that do not have active younger people’s classes or support groups can do the following:
- Join younger people’s classes or support groups in other Communities—by phone, online, or when possible in person—and have online or phone sessions with people in those classes or support groups while also maintaining Co-Counseling relationships in their own Community
- Be invited and supported to attend workshops with the class or support group they are affiliated with
When younger people build relationships with one another across Communities, it helps develop the leadership of younger people in the Communities that lack strong younger people’s work and makes it possible for these younger people to eventually lead the work in their own Communities.
The Re-evaluation Foundation can try to provide funding to support this work.
TRANSITION PROJECTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Projects already exist to support young people who are making the transition from family work to two-way counseling or are moving away from their home Communities. These projects match young people with an adult ally who can persist in staying connected to them and track their relationship to RC. When young people are transitioning to two-way counseling, allies can support them to participate in young people’s work, establish regular Co-Counseling relationships, and join their local RC Community. When young people are moving away from home, allies can help them stay connected to RC and join their new RC Community.
Every young person is encouraged to make use of these projects. All RC leaders should be made aware of them and support their use.
BRINGING MORE YOUNGER PEOPLE INTO THE COMMUNITY
Many of the people who have stayed in and become leaders in the RC Community came into RC as young people, young adults, or people in their thirties. We therefore encourage all RC Community members to build relationships with younger people.
We want younger people to bring their friends into RC, but we don’t want to rely on younger people alone to increase the numbers of younger people in our Communities. All members of the Community will benefit from actively making friends with and sharing RC with younger people.
Re-evaluation Counseling teachers can think freshly and creatively about the structure of their classes (for example, they can incorporate more games and informal hang-out time) so that the classes work better for younger people. We encourage allies, when possible, to support younger people to teach and assist in these classes.
PEOPLE IN THEIR THIRTIES AND FORTIES
It helps build younger people’s work when people in their thirties and forties have leadership roles in the RC Communities. Existing Reference Persons are encouraged to train younger leaders to play these roles.
Younger people need the opportunity to connect with and be led by people in their thirties and forties, especially those who have been leaders of young people’s or young adults’ work. One way to make this happen is to convene (for example, at workshops and in other situations in which there are fewer younger people) topic groups or tables for people under age forty or fifty. Former Reference Persons and other leaders of younger people are encouraged to play an advisory role in these groups.
ALLIES
Each adult in the RC Community is encouraged to discharge and move thoughtfully in the direction of building a relationship with a young person and a young adult, inside or outside of RC. The adult can commit to these relationships and discharge where things get hard. Occasional support groups and other gatherings can provide additional counseling and sharing of theory.
This Strategic Plan calls for the development of an ongoing allies’ project to complement it.
(Present Time 189, October 2017)