(6 months – 4 years)

Loving and age-appropriate care is available for children during morning worship services.

(Ages 3 – 4)

Heart Talk for Kids is an active peacemaking curriculum based on Compassionate Communication. Children learn basic skills involved in communicating with empathy and understanding of common needs and feelings. We Are Many, We Are One focuses on celebrating our uniqueness, learning about differences in the human family, and honoring the earth we share.

Children and families can participate in Connection events/activities together at 10:30 AM before RE programming and Sunday service.

Young children gather to participate in song, ritual, and story. This worship includes interactive questions, mindfulness practice, and encouragement to build their UU faith wherever they are.

Children rotate through workshops that teach the UU Sources of the Living Tradition and sync up with our Seasonal Worship Themes. These include: My Sacred Stage (learning from direct experiences of life), The Good Neighborhood (Jewish and Christian teachings on love), Thinking Cap Lab (humanistic teachings), Superhero City (words and deeds to confront evil), Nature Center (earth-based teachings about life’s sacred cycle), and Guru Gym (wisdom from world religions).

Children’s Interest Groups & Play

Children can choose or self-organize for common interest groups across ages such as UU Choir, UU Animal and Environmental Advocates, board games, free play, etc.

(5th grade)

(5th grade)

Participants will explore the challenge of making peace in a culture full of interpersonal violence, including gun, gender, and racial violence. Basic skills of managing power, conflict resolution, offering and receiving forgiveness and resistance to violence will be practiced. A service project(s) addressing human needs for peace and security will be included. Excursions include a trip to The Gandhi Institute, Mennonite Church, or Society of Friends.

Participants will explore the challenge of not following the crowd when pressures to conform are high. Basic skills of critical moral reasoning, resistance to peer pressure, and free religious inquiry will be practiced. A service project(s) addressing the human need for self-determination will be included. Excursions include a trip to The Father’s House, First Church of Christ, Scientist, or Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Junior Youth gather to participate in music, ritual, and story. This worship includes interactive questions, mindfulness practice, and encouragement to build their UU faith wherever they are.

(6th – 8th grade)

(Junior Youth)

Experience a Unitarian Universalist church hop, ropes course, retreats, worship, sexuality education, social action, and more! In this small group, teens examine what it means to be a UU in everyday life and to embrace our mission and history more fully. Culminating activities include a pilgrimage to historical UU sites in Boston and a rite of passage celebration. COA group is open until mid October.

*Youth may participate in both Youth Group and Coming of Age.

Youth gather to lead and participate in music, ritual, and story. This worship includes interactive questions, mindfulness practice, and encouragement to build their UU faith wherever they are.

Youth can choose or self-organize for common interest groups across ages such as UU Choir, UU Animal and Environmental Advocates, board games, jam band, etc.

(9th grade)

(9th grade)

Check it out! Open to all high school teens, Youth Group is a youth-driven meet-up with room for everyone to get involved in community building, social action, and spiritual development! Come when you can or be part of a strong core of regulars. Typical group activities include a weekly check-in and a learning/action activity—everything from art meditation to packing condoms, from planning a fundraiser for scholarships in Honduras to making videos or CDs! Social action projects and learning are in partnership with a First Unitarian ministry and one national UU initiative!

*Youth may participate in both Youth Group and Coming of Age in the same year.

Youth gather to lead and participate in music, ritual, and story. This worship includes interactive questions, mindfulness practice, and encouragement to build their UU faith wherever they are.

Youth can choose or self-organize for common interest groups across ages such as UU Choir, UU Animal and Environmental Advocates, board games, jam band, etc.

(10th – 12th grade)

These community gatherings are a chance for families to learn, do, or just be together in the wider Rochester area and beyond! Lightly programmed, these will invite shared experiences and reflection, fun and exploration for families of any make-up! First Fall Friday, Unirondack, Spring Retreat.

A monthly caring circle for any parent/grandparent/guardian who wishes to learn non-violent communication skills, embodied mindfulness techniques, and how to nourish gratitude. This year the focus is on tending your UU home from a Buddhist perspective and with JUST Communication.

A quarterly offering for parents who are single, widowed, co-parenting or parallel parenting with a caregiver in another household.

An overview of caregiver strategies from Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Raise and Antiracist. One or two strategies will be explored in depth each time we meet using creativity, dialogue, and reflection on excerpts from the book.

A new group forming to support parents of transgender children and youth, based on group needs and concerns. Time/ frequency TBD by group members.

A semi-annual circle of parents/guardians whose children are in transition as young adults.

If your child has a special need, our Friends in Faith program may be able to help.

Contact Sarah to discuss.

An annual offering for families wanting to integrate UU values more deeply into home life. Basics of equity-based communication, family circle process, mindfulness practice, and gratitude practice will be shared. Contact us with questions.

Click here for more information.

Some RE programs have parent meetings scheduled as part of your child’s learning. You will be notified individually of these. For questions about out Parent Orientation to our program contact Sarah. Looking for a group that doesn’t (yet) exist? Contact us at ([email protected]).