UU’s in Vero Beach Start Health-E Teens Coalition

One of the highlights of being the national organizer for Promise the Children is learning about programs Unitarian Universalists have created to help children and youth.

Claudia Jimenez, the Director of Lifespan Religious Education at the UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, recently told me about the Health-E Teens Coalition (HETC). HETC is a grassroots organization promoting factual health information for youth, including comprehensive sexuality education. Jimenez started HETC with a fellow Unitarian Universalist parent, Judy Orcutt.

Jimenez explains how Our Whole Lives (the Unitarian Universalist sexuality education program) inspired her and Orcutt:

“We are both trained [middle-school and high-school] OWL facilitators and are very impressed with the quality of the curriculum and the wonderful activities. However, OWL reaches mostly progressive families and we are appalled with the pregnancy and STI rates in our county. This type of education should be available to all children. The abstinence-only education in our schools is simply not working, and it is time to try to do something about it.”

HETC is a model for how Unitarian Universalists can promote sexuality education on the local level. Last week, HETC held an educational event titled “What Every Parent Needs to Know About the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Vaccine.” The event was held in a secular community center and was open to the public. Jimenez and Orcutt have also been interviewed in the local media about HETC.

For more information about you can support the Health-E Teens Coalition, please contact Claudia Jimenez at

Revised 4:50pm on 2/26/07

“Eight for 2008”: Policy Recommendations from the Education Sector

Released by the Education Sector, “Eight for 2008: Education Ideas for the Next President” details policies to improve children’s education. Their first proposal is to increase access to pre-kindergarten programs for children in low-income families. Although pre-kindergarten has been shown to benefit students and communities, “fewer than half of the nation’s poor 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool.” The Education Sector argues that a $18.4 billion program, funded primarily by the federal government, is needed to provide pre-kindergarten to those children who are currently left out.

Intergenerational Worship Ideas

The Mass Bay District sponsored a conference on intergenerational worship this past weekend as part of its Learning Congregation program. The conference highlighted worship models that integrate children and adults.

One of the important insights of the meeting was that children and adults participate in similar and voluntary ways in a strong intergenerational worship.

The morning worship included a song led by KidSing, a children’s chorus from the First Parish in Bedford. I was moved by this group, as they started the worship off with enthusiasm and joy. I was also impressed by their talent, since I rarely see children have a role in leading UU worship.

Later in the day there was discussion about why adults clapped following the KidSing song. (As a non-clapper who had felt slightly guilty, I was glad someone brought this up). One person emphasized that it is important for adults to respond to children leading the worship the same way they respond to adults leading worship, i.e. with reverent silence following the musical pieces. (However, another participant noted that UU adults often clap following adult musicians as well!)

An important point was also made by one of the presenters (Tracy Duncan, DRE at First Parish of Sudbury) about how stories are told during worship. She emphasized that story time should not be focused specifically on children, and that it should not be used to “make a spectacle” of them. Most adults do not like be put on display during worship, and neither do children. Ms. Duncan explained that when she tells stories in intergenerational worship, she does not generally invite children to come to the front of the sanctuary. One exception to this is when there is something children need to see that they cannot from the pews. Another is when children and adults alike are invited to play a role in a story being told to the congregation, a process Ms. Duncan modeled during the morning worship.