This article by By Shirley Barr, Allan Howard and Kim-Ellen Hurst was first published in One Earth Magazine Volume 5 Issue 3 March/April 1985.

“We have everything we need—the perfect existence—but we have to see it (accept the present). The only thing that makes people suffer is themselves.”

“What is love? Love is living to let another soul live and be happy living. ”

A 14-year-old girl from London wrote these words. And for members of the Findhorn Foundation Youth Project, they illustrate clearly that ‘something is happening in young people today which is opening them to their own potential’.

FFYP, one of the most exciting new ventures within the community, aims to develop and empower that potential. Not simply an expression of the Foundation’s expanding participation with the world, the project is a focal point for the energy and enthusiasm of our younger members and is evolving quickly and dynamically. All the teenagers in the Foundation are engaged in it, each taking responsibility for a different aspect, setting their own goals and learning to work effectively in a group. Sincere and purposeful, they are busy at work and have already made numerous contacts, ranging from a large environmental improvement project in Glasgow, to members of the London business community, and to young individuals around the world.

The group is focused by Allan Howard, a Glaswegian and former police officer in his mid-twenties, and Kim-Ellen Hurst, who has spent many of her 19 years in the Foundation. Allan explains his evident enthusiasm for the work: “The young people in the project keep me young with their inspiration and hope—the world needs these qualities. ”

Part of his goal with the project is to change the way young people are perceived. “We need new words and a new way of thinking to cover young people today,” he says. “Even words like ‘youth ’ and ‘young adults’ aren’t quite satisfactory. And the stereotype of an idle and confused teenager is definitely no longer relevant. Many of these people are learning to empower themselves and others, to create their future. “

Here three of the members of the group describe the project.

In the past few years, several individuals in the Foundation have become interested in the consciousness of youth today. What began as an idea has now evolved into a working group consisting of ten people between the ages of 12 and 19 now resident in the community and supported by an advisory group of ten adult members. The energy behind the project is the young people involved and their desire to begin work on the creation of their own future. The project is a vehicle for young people to explore their own visions for the future and to express that potential collectively. It is not limited to one particular task for, indeed, the business of the FFYP is to increase the effectiveness of young people and their ability to co-create a positive future.

It is appropriate that the project’s first year of operation coincide with International Youth Year, 1985. The United Nations intends to mark this year as the beginning of a planetary focus on young people and has provided the following themes for the work:

Participation: That young people have a right to be included in discussions and decisions affecting their lives and the future of their societies. Participation implies understanding, equality, acceptance and involvement.

Development: Young people must be free to develop new ways and directions while maintaining respect for their cultural heritage.

Peace: Peace is understanding, it is justice and equality, participation and development. It is the freedom to exist and the assurance that the future will be worth living.

We of the project group have come together to create our own reality through our own doing. Our goals for 1985 include collecting information and educating ourselves on the issues and needs of young people; linking with groups that are working with youth throughout the UK and the world; connecting with a local arts group that works with unemployed youth; and, fundamental to our work, establishing a youth facility within the Foundation.

We feel these goals are of major importance, that youth work at this time is vital. Young people everywhere are clearly discovering their importance in the world and the necessity of consciously choosing what they wish to do with their lives. The Findhorn Foundation Youth Project has been formed not for the amusement of the younger generation or to keep them in their place, but for young people to learn through experience how to be effective in their lives.

 

OE Vol5 Issue 3 FFYPWe believe that the consciousness of a peaceful future exists within the young people of today and that the realisation of that future depends on the young
awakening to their inner potential.

Findhorn Foundation Youth Project members