This article is from page 63 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 63 JPG
A NEW youth group in Ennis aims to assist young people to resist out- side influences and establish their own values.
That’s the message from the lo- cal Baha’i community members of whom started a two week project in Ennis at the weekend.
The aim is to make junior youth groups more widely available.
These groups, which are open to young people aged twelve to four- teen, are an initiative of the Baha’i
Faith and are a core activity offered worldwide by the Baha’is as a service to humanity.
Young people from County Clare and other parts of Ireland gathered to undertake training in running a Junior Youth Group and as part of their training they will invite the lo- cal Ennis Junior Youth to participate in some short taster sessions with the objective of setting up a regular Junior Youth Group starting in Sep- tember.
The materials used in junior youth eroups are Baha‘ inspired but are not
specifically religious. Through study of the materials, service projects and other activities the groups are de- signed to empower young people to express themselves and to see them- selves as transformers of their own characters and of society.
Junior youth groups have been in1- tiated in all parts of the world, meet- ing with great success in diverse locations from Ennis to Mongolia to Australia. Fourteen year old Jani Song from Perth in Australia, who participated in a junior youth group, had this to say, “When you’re in high
school, you see the popular, or cool group and they often take drugs. You see people drinking or doing other sorts of stuff. And you kind of just want to do it because you want to fol- low the crowd.”
Anyone interested in finding out what a group is like, introductory sessions will be hosted during the second week of the project at Cois na hAbhna, Gort Road, Ennis in the afternoons. For further information on participating in the junior youth group, contact Maria McNamara at 086 3613162.