April 3, 2012

Heading into Spring means international abundance, or so it seems. A recent conversation with the new Youth Section team in Dornach--Constanza, Che and Lisa--revealed some of their hopes for their work together. They also explained a little bit of how they intend to highlight points of overlap as well as separation between the increasingly blurry lines of the YIP network and the Youth Section network, particularly how this will be evident in the Initiative Forums.

The YIP Initiative Forum is organized by current Yippies and invites past participants, contributors and supporters to rally together, to take in the year, and to also support those in the YIP experience. It's a much more focused experience that may be anthroposophically-inspired, but is not anthroposophically-focused. 

In contrast, or complement, the Youth Section Initiative Forum reaches out to a broader network and the forum allows for participants to look at what the next step is for the Youth Section, and for youth working strongly out of anthroposophy in the world.

The Youth Section, says Constanza, is "open always for people to visit, it is an open space for those looking...who feel a special task, who carry the possibility for an initiative." She adds that, "to do an initiative, to assign your own will without a determined character to go to YIP or I don't know where...to share ideas with people coming together," this is what the Youth Section Initiative Forum is about. It's for people to come together and to see who the new generation is--and to perceive what is coming. As the Youth Section is part of, and at, the Goetheanum, there is a very special experience to be had for those who visit. It's focused. It's working not out of but with anthroposophy; not just with the fruits, but with colleagues laboring in other sections to do the research that is necessary to furthering the work, to deepening the understanding.

The new team is consciously and actively working with the question: "What does it mean to work with youth today?" And here is one point of inspiration for this year's Youth Section Initiative Forum, which will follow the youth conference in July. Check out the event listing for more information. –Leslie

Our Next Initiative Call is on 6/3/2012. 

Some upcoming events and highlights:

• YIP Initiative Forum (Jarna, Sweden)
• Impulse Festival: Metamorphosis (Fair Oaks, CA)
• Learn-Share-Work (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Guardian of the Threshold, Mystery Drama Conference (Spring Valley, NY)
• Being Present Youth Section Conference (Dornach, Switzerland)
• Youth Section Initiative Forum (Dornach, Switzerland)
• That Good May Become, Annual Society Conference in America (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Youth Research Project Meeting (Fair Oaks, CA)