Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Ansel Oliver/ANN]
“Ask a kid, ‘Are drugs bad?’ They’ll say ‘yes.’ But what do you do when you’re lonely?” says Dr. Kathleen Kuntaraf, a physician and associate director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s health ministries.
“You can’t tell a teenager to love–they don’t know how. By nature they belittle each other because of insecurity. So with this course they’re being accepted with honor, dignity and respect as a child of God, and they tend to be bonded by the end of the week,” Kuntaraf says.
The Youth Alive training conference, a six-day workshop, is based on the original Adventist Youth-to-Youth program created by Dr. Patricia B. Mutch of the church’s health ministries for creating positive peer influences. It was re-launched in 2001 under its new name with a cooperative effort from the church’s family, health, youth, and education departments.
Although it’s not a program for treating those who abuse drugs, Kuntaraf says this program aims to prevent them from getting involved.
She says many people use drugs to escape from their problems. “This program goes beyond drugs, to the symptoms,” she says.
The Youth Alive rules don’t allow putdowns–no demeaning talk. Its purpose is to build connectedness among youth. The kids are divided into “friendship groups” of no more than 12 members. Alliterative names are given to each participant: energetic Edwin, awesome Aaron, kind Karen–so people can focus on the positive side of each participant. The games are cooperative, not competitive.
“It usually takes a few days for the kids to start feeling connected,” says Kuntaraf. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a change in someone’s face. Some participants walk down the hall afterward, open their book of compliments, read some, close it and continue walking. They felt so happy to be appreciated.
“Other kids hear about this program and wish they could join too. People want to be in this environment of being appreciated,” says Kuntaraf.
She says the most successful Youth Alive program was in Mongolia where 204 youth–most not members of the Adventist Church–participated. Also in attendance were the first two Adventists in Mongolia. Today there are 524 Adventists–95 percent youth–in Mongolia, the fastest growing rate for any country where the Adventist Church exists. “There’s 100 percent growth every year, and to think, they are mostly young people,” says Kuntaraf.
The regular Youth Alive local club can be incorporated into any existing youth program, maintaining the environment of “connectedness with God and with each other,” which are the two vital factors protecting youth from getting involved in at-risk behaviors, according to Kuntaraf.
Youth Alive has become an ongoing program in the Philippines since it was introduced there. The biggest challenge facing Youth Alive is the establishment of a permanent local Youth Alive club, according to Abraham T. Carpena, the region’s health ministries director for the Adventist Church. “This is the key to this program in order to see the continuous effectiveness. But the problem we are encountering is the fast turnover of leadership in local regions–[about] once every three years. Because of this the next person in position may not have enough knowledge of the program. That’s one of the causes of the irregularity of the program.” Carpena has four Youth Alive programs scheduled next year.
Youth Alive took place in nearly every local district of the church’s Euro-Asia region this year, according to Nadezhda A. Ivanova, health ministries director for the church in that region. The program there usually involves 150 to 200 teenagers.
“I have seen a remarkable change in our young people by the end of the program,” says Ivanova. “Not only is this a drug prevention action, but also a way to help our teenagers to learn more about themselves, to improve their relationships with other people and to develop leadership abilities.”
The next Youth Alive session will be held in Hong Kong July 5 to 11, 2004.
Copyright © 2003 Adventist News Network.
