Junior Young Friends

Junior Young Friends (JYF) is a Quaker youth group within Britain Yearly Meeting for 13- to 18-year-olds, which holds weekend-long gatherings roughly 3 times a year.

Events take place in a Quaker Meeting House, usually in the Birmingham area. It is, strictly speaking, responsible to Warwickshire Monthly Meeting, though it attracts participants from across the United Kingdom.

The appendage of the word 'Junior' to the name is in order to distinguish from Young Friends usually used to describe Quakers aged 18–30 (as in Young Friends General Meeting).

The weekends sometimes have a theme, often related to Quaker ideals, which is contemplated through Base Group discussions, the Committee-run sessions and sometimes guest speakers. There is also a significant amount of free time allocated to allow participants to explore the city where the event is held. The tradition of staying up into the early hours of the morning, or not even sleeping at all, is embraced by the majority of the participants. JYF has evolved a number of in-jokes and other traditions (including the love of Milk & Toast and peppermint tea) which appear quite odd to those who have little experience of the young Quaker culture.

There are also a number of JYF groups worldwide.

History

Historically, there were JYF groups throughout Britain, but a number of circumstances led to their closure, to the point that the Warwickshire Junior Young Friends is the last surviving one. Many Quaker youth groups are now known as Link Groups, but differ from Junior Young Friends because they are organised partly or in whole by adults. JYF is solely organised by The Committee who are all 19 or under. To fulfill legal requirements, there are Responsible Adult supervisors (RA's) on site throughout the weekend.

Locations

In recent years, JYF's have been held at Friend's Meeting Houses in the following locations:

Links and references

Junior Young Friends website