Welcome to the Adult Young Friends info page!
The Adult Young Friends (AYF of FGC) program is a self-led intentional community of Friends ages 18–35 who come together at the Gathering to support, inspire, and challenge each other in our life journeys. We represent a variety of backgrounds, and hail from all over the world of Quakerdom.
Participants in AYF are involved in every aspect of the Gathering as a whole. The community also hosts a number of AYF specific events throughout the week. We strengthen our community through worship, AYF affinity groups, Meeting for Business, and share in fellowship and celebration. We create a community in which we can grow, bond, and strengthen our connection to our chosen faith. For many of us, the warmth and intentionally of this community is a cornerstone of our participation in Gathering:
The Adult Young Friends program provides such a fun and welcoming community within the larger Gathering. A stranger in the AYF dorm who invited me to breakfast that first year is now my dear friend.
Christy
I truly cannot imagine FGC Gathering without this community. It’s not that my experience would be incomplete without it, but rather that the AYF community IS my experience at Gathering. I come back every year to see the same f/Friends again, and I hope our community continues to change and grow and to have such a lasting year-round impact on so many young adult Quakers.
Liana
How to Participate
Check the AYF program box when you register and we will send you more information about specific events as the Gathering nears.
You are welcome to participate in our program to whatever degree you find most beneficial. You can choose to stay in the AYF housing cluster, or you can live in whatever other housing arrangement suits you.
In either case you may attend your choice of AYF activities while still participating in as many of the other Gathering options as time and energy allow. AYF of FGC also has a Discord server to support our communications and connections at and outside of Gathering. You do not have to attend a Gathering in order to join the Discord!
The AYF Program needs your support by serving on our committees to help our program thrive at gathering and beyond. Read about the AYF of FGC Committees and reach out to a Coordinator, Colby Abazs and Lucas Meyer-Lee, or a Nominating Member if you or a friend might feel a calling to serve.
Adult Young Friends 2024 Pre-Gathering Retreat
This year, the Adult Young Friends (AYF) pre-Gathering retreat will be an opportunity for new and old timer AYFers to create a vision for what our community could look like into the future. The disruptions of the pandemic have upset our typical procedures and given us a moment to reimagine who we are and how we might organize in order to better meet the needs of adult young Friends long into the future.
We will explore some of the different ways FGC and its AYF community have functioned throughout history and create spaces to lift up new ideas and collaborate together around identifying and addressing the most pressing needs of young adult Quakers and seekers. The broader organization of FGC is also exploring restructuring and working towards becoming an actively anti-racist faith community. One of the aims of this pre-gathering retreat will be to find our place in that organization-level work and to see how we might possibly lead the way, pushing FGC to evolve.
Within the AYF meetings for worship with attention to business throughout the Gathering week, this pre-retreat can bring some of its work to the whole of the AYF community, serving as a seasoning and shaping of how we can evolve. Even if you have never been to FGC Gathering before, we invite you to join us in this joyful work; fresh eyes are a vital part of the process!
Facilitators: Colby and Alissa
Schedule: Arrival Friday evening preferred (unless commuting). Main workshop sessions will be in the mornings and afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, with time for fellowship in the evenings.
No extra fees beyond housing and food. Only open to folks of AYF age (18-35) who are also attending the rest of the Gathering.
Financial Aid
Not sure you can afford to come to Gathering? There are many financial aid options available, including travel grants for some young adults, Friends in certain regions, and Friends of Color.