The Baha’is of Pasadena: Junior Youth Groups

One of the core activities offered by the Pasadena Baha’i community that is open to all is the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program. This program aims to assist junior youth (ages 12-14) to take ownership of their spiritual and intellectual development, to help create a strong sense of purpose and volition so that these young people are enabled to make sounds decisions, and desire to engage in meaningful social action in their communities.

“Let them come to realize the full significance of their efforts to help young people form a strong moral identity in their early adolescent years and empower them to contribute to the well-being of their communities.”
-The Universal House of Justice, 20 October 2008

“They assist junior youth to navigate through a crucial stage of their lives and to become empowered to direct their energies toward the advancement of civilization.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridván 2008

“While global trends project an image of this age group as problematic, lost in the throes of tumultuous physical and emotional change, unresponsive and self-consumed, the Bahá’í community – in the language it employs and the approaches it adopts – is moving decidedly in the opposite direction, seeing in junior youth instead altruism, an acute sense of justice, eagerness to learn about the universe and a desire to contribute to the construction of a better world.

…and the spread in influence of a programme that instils in junior youth the sense of a twofold moral purpose, to develop their inherent potentialities and to contribute to the transformation of society…”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridván 2010

Several junior youth groups are going strong in Pasadena area. If you are interested in learning more about such groups or in training to become a junior youth animator please contact us.

Pasadena Bahai Community, 1117 Forest Avenue Pasadena, (626) 607-1844 or visit http://pasadenabahai.org/.