Kids & Youth Registration 2020-21

Kids & Youth Registration 2020-21

Whether your family has been engaged in East Shore for 10 years or 10 seconds, we have something to support you all during COVID-19. Come get plugged into fall programs for children and youth.

Register for East Shore’s Children and Youth Religious Education (RE) program

  • Please register your children and youth, ages 0-18, for our Sunday morning religious education programs.
  • Each year, we ask families to register their children for RE. Registering is essential to the functioning of our programs, giving parents and care providers access to important information about classes, weekly emails, and timely updates.
  • Online registration is preferred. This helps provide up-to-date and readily accessible information to our staff and RE volunteers.
  • Paper forms are available at East Shore as well.
  • After three visits, children and youth must be enrolled to participate in RE programs.
  • We are using a new membership software, Realm. This can be used as a guest or via an account, through the website browser or via a free app you can download on devices.

Annual Enrollment for Children and Youth

At East Shore we care about children and youth and we want to make sure they are counted in our community! Annual Enrollment for Children and Youth helps us to stay in touch with you and make sure we know the best and most current information about your family. Whether you’re involved in Sunday school Religious Exploration or not, we ask that you fill out our annual enrollment for families.

Please fill out and sign a new registration form each year. If your children or youth come to any event (Sunday school, Sunday services, Coffee Hour, etc.) three or more times during a year, we ask you to fill out a registration form to help us plan the program and make sure we count all the members of our multigenerational community!

Attendance and Drop Ins

Many of our other 2020-2021 classes and groups require sign-up ahead of time through enrollment and Zoom registration. However, Sunday morning Religious Exploration programs at 9:30 a.m. are all available for drop-in attendance at any point in the church year. The link for the meeting can be found here.

We understand the many reasons why families may not be able to attend programs each week and are especially at capacity for online engagement. Regardless, we encourage you to stay in conversation with us. We are in this together. Never hesitate to reach out with ideas on how we may be able to offer services that can support your more directly, either through material, educational, emotional, or spiritual resources.

You can register now on Realm through this link.

Volunteer Teachers

Our programs are supported through the tireless dedication of adults in the ESUC community who enjoy working with young people, have a strong UU identity, and have good listening and communication skills.

The volunteers that we select are screened, trained and supervised by Religious Exploration staff. They undergo robust background checks and are vetted carefully to help ensure the safety of our children and youth.

Many youth in our congregation serve as volunteer teachers for our children’s programs. Youth are able to use this service toward mandatory volunteer hours for school. We also offer other volunteer opportunities for youth who want to be involved at East Shore outside of the classroom.

Schedule for Fall Programs

All of our programs are running on a seven week cycles. We’ll have cycles to join and participate in and if you can’t make it this time, please join us at the start of the next cycle! Our cycles this fall are marked with a kick off date on the Social-Distance Soul Saturdays where children and youth pick up goodies and supplies, and there’s a special All Ages opportunity as well.

Fall cycle dates are: September 12, October 31, and December 5.

 

 

 

 

Pledging & Donations

Thanks to all those who give strong financial support through their annual pledges, we have no registration fee for the Sunday school. We can continue this tradition of strong voluntary financial support — please give as generously as you are able when you make your pledge to ESUC this year. If you don’t already pledge to East Shore, please consider a donation for your children or youth’s participation in programming. We rely on pledges and donations to help our staff and volunteers succeed!

Kids & Youth Safety

Our faith is about deed, not creed. Please join us in these agreements to create a safer, braver space for our children.

Children & Youth Online Covenant

  1. We are gathering in community to enjoy, support and learn from one another.
  2. Keep it age appropriate. Each meeting has a “movie” rating. G for Chalice Circle or PG-13 for MS and HS Youth Groups.
  3. Be kind, curious and courteous. Help to create a welcoming environment.
  4. No hate speech or bullying. Help to make sure everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn’t allowed, and degrading comments about things such as race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity aren’t ok.
  5. Respect everyone’s privacy: what is shared in the group, stays in the group.
  6. Only the meetings host is allowed to share screens.
  7. For safety and accountability, please participate in the group chat only.
  8. Remember, you can rely on the seven principles to help guide you!
  9. Parents are responsible for monitoring the screens at home while in the RE groups.
  10. If you’re not sure how something works or if it’s okay to share, please ask! This is a learning opportunity for all.
  11. If something upsetting happens, please tell East Shore’s Director of Religious Education, Amanda Uluhan.

Principles of U.U.

Here are the things that we believe. These are the Unitarian Universalist Principles:

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

  1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person
  2. Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations
  3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations
  4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
  5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large
  6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
  7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Kids & Youth Principles of U.U.

We believe another world is possible. Our principles are our guideposts to help us treat ourselves, each other, and the planet with care and love. These principles help you to be the best person you can be. And when you mess up, they show you a way out. The principles also help to show you how to treat other people and how to behave in community. When you’re not sure the best approach to something, look at the principles. Which one applies to your situation? How can you make the best choice possible, and cause the least harm to any one or any thing?

  1. Each person is important.
  2. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with kindness.
  3. We accept one another and learn together.
  4. We are all free to search for what is true and right.
  5. We all have a voice in things that concern us.
  6. We work toward a peaceful, fair and free world.
  7. We care for our planet, the home we share with all living things.
  8. Diversity and equity are beautiful and we lift each other up, together.

These aren’t always easy. That’s ok, we can practice together.