Youth

Youth Leaders

Beyond the Global Divide (BGD), an initiative of the Spirit of Truth Foundation, is a meeting comprised of youth and Indigenous Elders/Wisdom Keepers from all over the world to exchange knowledge. The objective for these gatherings is world peace. Our goal is to develop a dynamic leadership core of youth leaders who embrace values from the teachings, wisdom, and guidance of traditional and domestic elders.

Beyond the Global Divide celebrates both the uniqueness and commonality of our various world cultures and our shared hope for a more peaceful world.

Youth Director and Visionary of BGD, Michael Ware, believes that, “We need to look at what our definition of world peace means, if I ask everybody what defines world peace, you would all have something different to say. To totally make this vision work, we need to hear as many diverse ideas of world peace as possible, represented by individuals from around the world.

No one person or nation has the answer. If it is world peace we’re talking about we need a worldview. I strongly believe in taking care of the home front, and or ourself before we can effectively care for someone else, but its necessary to know that what we do affects those at home and abroad.

Far more than one country’s foreign policy and the way it affects another, it is the way we treat our environment and how we choose to use natural resources. It has to do with our worldview on religions and a lot of small things we so often look past, mainly, the love of self.

We cannot help anybody if we are not right within ourself. I so often talk to people about the topic of world peace and nine times out of ten I hear it cannot happen. The first point they bring up is that the world powers make too much money off of the death and destruction. *That’s one main illness we have to over come before a lot of other problems will be solved.

Focusing mainly on my generation, we are fed by TV, and all the other ways they can make us love money more than we love our selves. This makes the loving and moral side of us secondary to making and spending money . . .

Today the concept of ‘world peace’ is watered down. I believe that most people truly feel that it can’t happen, but they say it anyway because it’s the expected thing to say. I say it because I know it is possible and I feel that I have a responsibility to help create the network that starts a visible world movement towards that goal.

A number of organizations around the world are striving to achieve the same results. There are people already out there that are working on it right now, but the vision is of massive proportions. I urge all organizations working towards the same goal to be a part of Beyond the Global Divide.

It is my dream that 2010 will not be the end of ten years of world leadership, but the beginning of a new nation. A world nation made up of hundreds of organizations and people that work hard and believe that world peace is not just possible but will take place.

Beyond the Global Divide creates an opportunity to share this vision; to come together with like minds to create a unified plan to accomplish peace and peace initiatives; to create a focused, structured organization while utilizing everyone’s abilities and connections to help accomplish our goal.

No one person has the answer, but the BGD summit creates an environment that brings together motivated individuals to generate great ideas that can be synthesized into actions plans that can really be implemented.

URI’s youth work is geared towards young people ages 13 to 35. Connecting this work is a set of shared core values. These values are put into action though Youth CC Activity and brought together for shared learning in our Global Youth CC. Through our collaboration with other organizations and efforts we enhance the viability and visibility of youth interfaith efforts.

OUR SHARED CORE VALUES

Interfaith Dialogue and Exchange:
We seek to build understanding and trust among youth of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions.
We encourage learning about each others’ diverse perspectives and practices.
We utilize group processes for engaging diversity and for working inclusively and effectively with differences.

Service-Learning:
We work to bridge an active connection between youth participants and the greater community.
We encourage youth participants to engage in meaningful service in their community.
We encourage young people to reflect on the experience of doing service together from the perspectives of their diverse faith traditions and cultural backgrounds.

Leadership/Mentorship:
We strive to inspire and connect new generations of conscious, committed leaders.
We work to provide training and leadership opportunities for young people.
We encourage young people to share their learnings and leadership skills with others, learning the value of reciprocity and responsibility.

Deepening Roots:
We inspire and encourage young people to reach out to their own communities and to inquire deeper into the nature of their own faith.
We encourage young people to explore and rediscover their cultural traditions and to deepen roots in their community and tradition.
We provide opportunities to celebrate and support the transformation from child to young adult.