Religious Education

I am reaching out with some updates regarding our 8th-9th grade Our Whole Lives curriculum through the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (CUUF). We are excited to be offering this program starting in September on Sunday evenings in Ashland. Please save the date for our mandatory parent/student orientation on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 8, approximately 4:30 – 7 p.m. This meeting is required for everyone to attend as it provides important information about the curriculum, resources, and program logistics! As we get closer, we will be able to provide more specifics (location), but I wanted to reach out with a date so that you could mark your calendars with as much notice as possible!

The tentative plan is still to meet Sunday evenings with the first official workshop on Sunday,
Sept. 15th from 5:30 – 7 p.m. Please reach out if anything has changed for your family and your child is no longer able/interested in participating! Additionally, we still have a few spaces left, so if you know of other youth in the area who fall into this age-range, please feel free to share my contact info with them! I can be reached via call or text at 715-209-8200.
I look forward to getting to know your families and sharing this wonderful curriculum!

Warmly,

—Ashley Smith, Coordinator of Our Whole Lives

 

It’s been a wonderful year in RE! Between the holiday pageant, OWL, Building Bridges, and our regular Sunday RE classes, we had more than 40 children participate in our regular programs this year. This was made possible by the generous contributions of time and energy made by nearly 30 volunteers! Whether helping to create sets for the pageant, jumping in at the last minute to sub for an absent teacher, or showing up each Sunday to guide a group through lessons in spiritual development, each of our volunteers plays an integral role in providing a safe, welcoming, enriching, and fun space for our RE participants to learn and grow together in community. Deep gratitude to all our RE volunteers!

As families take some time to recharge this summer, please take note of the child-focused elements of the CUUF summer calendar. The July 14 service will be a Children’s Chapel, designed to appeal to all ages, with the annual picnic to follow. On Aug. 11, we will offer a separate Children’s Chapel that will run concurrently to the All-Poetry Service. Stay tuned toward the end of the summer for 2024-25 RE program registration and new opportunities for volunteer participation. Thank you!

—Andrea Ward, Director of Religious Education

Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Safe Congregations and Background Check Policy for Religious Education Staff and Volunteers

  • The Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (CUUF) recognizes the importance of fostering and creating communities where everyone, especially our most vulnerable populations such as children and youth, are protected. We seek to preserve that spirit of welcome, respect and trust in balance with our concern for the safety of our children, applying the best practices from the Unitarian Universalist Association to any policies or guidelines we adopt.
  • Religious education (RE) classes will be conducted following best practices from the Safe Congregations handbook: two adults or attendants will be present and classes will be conducted in open spaces or with doors open.
  • The CUUF Board will conduct a background check on all staff hired to work with RE, such as the Director(s) of Religious Education. The RE director(s) will conduct a background check on all RE volunteers who are hired to work with the youth. Background checks will be repeated once every five years.
  • RE director(s) will be mandatory reporters and will attend an annual training. RE volunteers will be provided an incident report form for accidents, injuries, medical situations, student behavioral incidents, or other concerns and will turn this into the RE director(s).
  • Every employee and every volunteer who comes in contact with children and youth will receive a copy of the safe congregation policy, ethics policy (under development), and sexual harassment policy (under development).