About YRUUP

Young Religious Unitarian Universalists of the Pacific is a longstanding, youth-run organization dedicated to providing fun, safe, and spiritual programs for youth in the Pacific Western Region. We serve youth and transitional young adults ages 14-20 with four weekend conferences and one week long summer camp every year. YRUUP is governed by an elected council of youth and adults who work closely with youth groups, congregations, and other Unitarian Universalist organizations in the Pacific Central District to create engaging and powerful youth programming geared towards community building, spiritual development, social action, and youth empowerment.

Our events help youth develop skills in leadership, community building, event coordination, and public speaking while accepting them into a loving community of their peers. Youth who have been to our events leave the community with the skills and peer support necessary to succeed and grow going forward in their lives.

Leadership

COUNCIL

Council is an elected group of youth and adults who organize YRUUP events.

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Jasmine Stapleton-Hart and others in the woods at leadership camp

YELLERS

Youth Empowered Lay Leaders (YELLers) are youth who step into leadership positions at individual events.

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ADULT ADVISERS

Adult Advisers are adults age 25+ who support our youth as chaperones and mentors at each event.

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Basic Event Information

Conferences

Conferences are weekend-long events in which youth from all around the region can gather together to bond, discuss issues, and share our faith. YRUUP holds four standard conferences throughout the year (Summer Con, Fall Con, Elections Con, and Spirit Con). Each one of these events begins Friday night at 7pm and ends Sunday afternoon at 1pm, except for Elections Con which ends Monday afternoon (held over Presidents day weekend). Because we believe strongly in youth empowerment, conferences are youth-planned and youth-led.

We always have a strict minimum youth-to-Adult-Adviser ratio of 10:1 at our events, and we usually plan to have that ratio at 8:1 for certainty. An Adult Adviser at YRUUP events is a person of age 25 years or older with a connection to the Unitarian Universalist faith and a passion for working with youth. Read more about our Adult Advisers here.

We also hold an annual summer camp in the Mendocino Woodlands in the first week of July. This is planned and led in much the same way as a weekend conference, but with extra social action, workshops, worships, and of course camping!

To get an idea of how the average con runs, check out this sample con schedule.

Frequently Asked Questions

Our FAQ page has nearly every piece of information you could want about YRUUP and how our organization is run. If you can’t find your answers there, you can contact us at council@yruup.org.