Deploying human resources for children's classes

Two Bay-area clusters, Marin County, CA (*C) and Santa Cruz, CA (B), have gained some valuable experience with children’s classes and junior youth groups in recent months. Here are some of the insights shared by believers in those communities:

It is necessary to identify a committed team to support any neighborhood effort. It is not sufficient to have just one person committed to it; there needs to be at least 3 to 5 people involved.

It is beneficial to engage other family members such as parents or older siblings in the children’s classes. . . .

The closer the classes follow the lesson plans in Book 3, the smoother the lesson will go. The teacher will be better prepared with the activities, and the children will remain more interested.

The interest in children’s classes and junior youth groups is high; people in many neighborhoods are very open and supportive of these activities.

Neighborhood youth are open to attending the classes, learning how to become children’s class teachers themselves, and studying Ruhi Books 1 and 3 to prepare for this act of service.

Youth serving as volunteers at Bosch Baha’i School have likewise been effective as children’s class teachers. When a meeting had been held to share with them the vision of the Five Year Plan and their role in it, they all offered to assist with at least one of the core activities.

Taking time to get to know junior youth on an informal basis has been a factor in their subsequent interest in joining a junior youth group.

Collection, analysis and use of data from the field not only guides the steady progress of a cluster, but also helps the friends see possibilities for service and understand their own role in the process.