Creating Unity, Amidst Diversity
Inside the month
What the teenagers actually do between landing in late June and flying home in July.
The method
The structure of the project is deliberate. All activities are timed intentionally so the teenagers have optimal time to bond through service, communication and fun.
Hiking, rafting, camping, the canyons, sporting events and more. For most of them, they've never experienced the wide open desert landscape Utah has to offer. And our hot, dry Utah summers will for sure be a new experience for them.
Rafting on the Green River is always a teen favorite.
Food banks, garden work, river clean ups. Shared work does something that shared conversation cannot, which is why it sits in every week rather than being a single good deed near the end.
Serving together, as one shared experience.
They attend both Protestant and Catholic service, together, as a group. For a great many of them it is the first time they have been inside a church outside their own faith. It's the beginning of the realization that there is strength in diversity.
Facilitated by the program director and counselors, these discussion sessions provide a safe and supportive space for teens to explore their experiences, share the challenges of living in religiously divided communities, and learn from one another. Conversations are grounded in trust, respect, and confidentiality, allowing participants to speak openly and be heard.
By the fourth week, friendships have crossed every boundary.
It is a tiny detail, easy to miss, but it contains the whole meaning of the program.
A day
The Program Director and Counselors oversee the daily activities. Host families have their teens in the evenings where a surprising amount of the actual relationship building happens.
Indicative rather than fixed. The published schedule for the current year is the one to plan around.
The project's own film covers a full summer in a few minutes.
