Which Pathway Best Fits You?

• You have a long history of service-learning, and you  want to integrate interfaith engagement.
• You see interfaith service-learning as a way to enrich your faith community's work with youth.
• You lead interfaith efforts, and you want to more effectively engage young people.
• You're involved in youth development efforts, and you want to include diverse faith communities.

People come to youth-led interfaith service-learning from many different places. It's important to be clear about your starting points and what make sense as your first steps.

Tips for Everyone

• Emphasize youth voice and leadership. If you're not a young person yourself, find young partners who can play key roles in envisioning what you might to together. Listen to their hopes, concerns, wishes, experiences, and priorities. Use those as starting points for shaping your vision and strategies.
• Build on what’s already in place. For example, are there community service or volunteer opportunities already in place that woud be enriched by interfaith service-learning? Are interfaith networks or organizations ready to try something new (or invite you to join forces with what they are doing? Are there asset builders in your community who would be delighted to support and partner with you. This networking can serve as a foundation for shared learning and mutually reinforcing efforts across the community.
• Tap existing relationships and networks. People are much more likely to join in if they are invited by someone they already know or trust. You may also need to make some “cold calls” to some groups whose friendship networks may not overlap easily with others in the community.
• Focus on strengthening relationships. It's through relationships that people most often try out something new. Even if a new program or initiative doesn't get started, you will have developed important connections for the future.

Starting Points for Different Individuals and Groups

If you want to experiment with a small group

• Talk with friends and colleagues from different faith groups. Are they interested in joining with you? If you keep it informal, you don't need to broaden too quickly. (However, it's important that young people's parents are aware and supportive of the effort. If the youth are active in religious institution, it's also a good idea to give a "heads up" about their participation to the congregational leader to avoid misinterpretation.)
• Find an existing service or service-learning opportunity to connect with. Otherwise, you will spend lots of time with logistics. Your local HandsOn Network, United Way, or interfaith council may know of opportunities. Connecting to the Global Youth Service Day is another opportunity for linking.
• Talk with other leaders involved in interfaith service-learning on the Bridge Builders social networking site.
• Take time for reflection, even if you just do a single project. That reflection will be an important opportunity to talk with others about whether you or they want to do more.

If you want to integrate interfaith service-learning into your congregation's youth programming

• Talk with the young people in your congregation to see if they are intrigued and if any are eager to work with you in exploring the possibilities. They can then begin talking with their friends as well, including those who may be from different faith traditions.
• Connect with other faith leaders who might be interested. These may include leaders in a local interfaith council or Council of Churches. Or they may be key leaders of other churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples in town. Start by getting to know them, building a sense of mutual trust and respect, and envisioning the possibilities.
• Start small, perhaps with a one-day event that gives a taste of interfaith engagement, service, and reflection. Many places find it’s easiest to link to an existing event, such as Global Youth Service Day, which includes Days of Interfaith Youth Service.
• Reflect and build over time, recognizing that one-day events, by themselves, do not typically have lasting impact. Taking the time to learn from previous experiences and working on continually strengthening various aspects of your efforts can help to ensure that it becomes a vibrant, life-transforming opportunity for the young people, the participating congregations, and communities.

If you want to integrate interfaith engagement into current service-learning efforts

• Talk with the young people who are in your program. Gauge their level if interest. If they are part of a wide range of religious institutions in your community, consider starting with those institutions as partners.
• Confirm with the youth, parents, and other stakeholders that the interfaith focus would be supported. (If not, take time for educating and building trust.)
• Identify and link to potential allies and leaders in the faith community. These could include leaders who have been effectively doing service or service-learning with their youth groups. Or they may be individuals who are keenly interested in building bridges beyond their own religious networks. Either way, they can enrich your efforts and become your "teachers" as you explore the interfaith world.
• Begin by adding interfaith dialogue to the planning and reflection components of your service-learning projects. Use resources in this tool kit to encourage participants to learn to articulate their beliefs and values.

If you're want to establish a structure for ongoing interfaith service-learning in your community

• Explore whether there are other community-wide, youth-led efforts that would support (or compete with) this vision. Get to know what they're doing, the opportunities and challenges they face, and whether there might be synergy between your vision and theirs.
• If you're a young person, talk with adults with experience in community-wide networking to help identify the opportunities and challenges—and how to work with them to reach your goal.
• If you're an adult, talk with young people about the vision, focusing on those who may have the gifts and experience for being a leader in a community-wide effort. Learn from them what would make the effort resonate with the young people in your community.
• Tap the tools in this guide that give practical strategies for organizing an interfaith youth leadership team.