Let me share with you what I believe to be the single most important thing to know about teenagers! Seriously! If you can remember this, it will change the way you see and understand our youth … and hopefully change the way you interact with them as well.
Teenagers are in the stage known as adolescence. There are three primary tasks of adolescence and each task begs certain questions from the developing youth:
1. Identity – Who am I? What do I believe? What are my values?
2. Autonomy – How am I unique and different? What’s my unique contribution in this world?
3. Affinity – How am I the same? Where do I fit in? Where (or to whom) do I belong?
These are incredibly deep questions, perhaps they are questions we ask our entire lives at various stages and intensities. But there is no other time in life that these questions are more pressing and demanding of answers than that of adolescence.
So let me begin this blog series by stating unequivocally that all accusations of youth being superficial and not interested in life’s bigger questions are categorically false! They are both consciously and subconsciously asking these questions all the time and they are looking for answers.
Is it possible that much of the loneliness, anxiety, and depression that we see in so many of today’s youth is related to the lack of satisfactory answers to these foundational questions?
Is it possible that a predominately secular society either cannot answer or does not know how to answer questions that are deeply spiritual in nature?
Is it possible that having no framework or system of belief creates additional stress on our youth, as they must then process everything through their own personal (and often isolated) worldview?
It is widely known and accepted that children and youth need rules, routine, structure, and guidance as they are developing into adults. Not only do they need it, they desire it (though they may not admit it). It creates a sense of safety for them and it communicates that adults (most often their parents) love them and desire what’s best for them.
RE:SOUL Youth Centre exists to care for young people holistically. This means that we desire to serve and care for them socially, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. We believe this is the only way we can genuinely enter into the deeper questions youth are asking and help them explore a larger world and where they fit into it.
What do you think? Is faith and belief an important aspect of helping teens develop holistically? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
As we explore these things over the coming weeks, I would like to invite your participation in two ways:
- I invite you to dialogue with us and join the conversation. We all learn more in community, so press in, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and let’s take this journey together.
- I invite you to invest in our youth by participating in our Spring Fundraiser. We are on the front lines of serving youth in our community and we are the only dedicated youth drop-in centre in Milton. We are 100% donor funded and all of our funding comes from people like you, who care about community, who care about young people, and who care about the future.
Finally, for those who don’t know us well, RE:SOUL Youth Centre is a faith-based organization and we are a program of Southwestern Ontario Youth for Christ. For some, knowing we are a faith-based organization creates both trust and affinity. However, we also know that for others being faith-based creates both suspicion and aversion. I recognize and understand both responses. However, as we say to the teens all the time at the youth centre, “You don’t have to agree with us to be with us!” So I would simply once again invite you to take the journey with us. We all have much to learn from one another!
CLICK BELOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Sincerely, and with gratitude,
Michael Burns
Director
RE:SOUL Youth Centre / YFC Milton