Reflections on the Co-workers' gathering, what is the Youth Section?
by Jacinta Gorchs
About 45 young people from 5 different continents, came together at the Goetheanum for the gathering. The diversity of socio-cultural backgrounds is one of the highlights of our event. All these young people are engaged uniquely and authentically with Anthroposophy and other young people around the globe. Those who were able to attend this year are internationally connected and supportive of each other's initiatives and locally active in the following locations: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Georgia, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, New Zeland, the Netherlands, Peru, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, USA, UK and Ukraine.
Each group is very particular in its identity, which makes our network incredibly diverse. Events, international conferences, study groups, anthroposophical-oriented educational programs, and practice spaces for vocational and self-development, are some of the initiatives carried out by our worldwide Youth Section.
But… What is the Youth Section? Who are we?
A vital intention for this year’s event was to bring active members together and explore questions about the identity of our movement and future perspectives.
What do we want? What unites us? How do we want to work together? What do we need?
We realized that one way to figure out how to best serve our intentions and purpose was to invite all "participants" to be "co-creators" of the event itself by sharing their questions, interests, and concerns beforehand. In this way, the organizing team could shape and determine the structure from the responses of those who would be part of the meeting. This gave us clear guidance on how to develop the content and program.
These were some of the questions asked:
What area of anthroposophical youth work have you been working on and in what context?
How would you characterize the heart and flame of your work and intentions?
What are questions that are rising up for you? What challenges?
What questions do you have about the Youth Section at the Goetheanum and the School for Spiritual Science?
What goals do you feel inspired to speak about for the worldwide Youth Section?
Do you have an artistic, contemplative, active, or other offering? What would you like to host?
With everyone's feedback, the beautiful challenge of putting everything into a common program began. According to personal questions and interests, we distributed tasks and responsibilities. All sessions were facilitated by members of the network. Thus, a colorful diversity of approaches and perspectives emerged in the different spaces, simply by the fact that each person was given space to actively contribute something that they brought with them: from the singing and movement sessions to the future perspectives and workshops. Everything was supported by the organizing team but co-created by the youth network.
Some of the themes we discussed and worked on over the week were: the School of Spiritual Science, inner spiritual work, culture of encounter, connection and communication, technology, organizational challenges, opportunities, and finances. More about the themes and program HERE.
As for the original question about the identity of the Section, something in me could crystallize during the Co-workers’ Gathering.
In all these years of taking part in different initiatives of the Youth Section, I have collected a wide spectrum of experiences that are highly significant for my biography. All of them have a common thread, which is in itself the encounter. What happens when the intention of an encounter is not only focused on the expectation of a specific result but, rather on the creation of a meaningful experience where questions can be raised, and perspectives discussed so that in the end, the process is as important as the result?
This is what the Youth Section is for me.
Jacinta Gorchs; co-worker at the Goetheanum