WHO OWNS ALUMNI?

Last Sunday night my husband and I enjoyed a night out at our local area Young Life Banquet sitting next to Kiki & Rhett. We met them as middle schoolers when I was on field staff in the early 2000s. They are now married, have two kids, and live five minutes away from us. I had the realization as I was sitting there, that they are now Alumni and Friends and we could be engaging with them even more! 

A week prior I had asked our local Area Director the following three questions:

1. What does your Area do to stay connected to YL alumni?   

2. What would be your top three things in a job description for someone helping your area with alumni?  

3. What are the top 1-3 positives you see for your area if alumni were more engaged?

I asked because my husband and I are former club kids, volunteers, leaders, and staff. We are YL Alumni & Friends from all angles as well. 

As such, we want to be part of the answer to the question ‘who owns alumni?’ In a word, the answer to that question is ‘everyone.’ In reality, it seems most effective if an area has a team of people in their mission community who raise their hands to come alongside staff to own, engage, and build a structure around alumni in the local area. 

This got me wondering if a job description existed for a “YL Community Engagement Coordinator?” Let’s take a quick stab at some essentials for this role that I’m beginning to think every committee needs:

  • A SPECIFIC ROLE on your local area committee

    • Who is someone who is already a part of your community and is excited about essentially being a volunteer leader with alumni?

    • This needs to be someone excited to build a team of people who engage alumni (former staff, volunteer leaders, parents, etc.).

  • The Alumni & Friends team will IDENTIFY the “alumni & friends” living in your local area

    • Work with area databases, former staff people, former volunteer leaders by reaching out to the Alumni & Friends department and work with your Area administrator.

  • The Alumni & Friends team will OFFER mutually beneficial opportunities 

    • What are we offering that is of value to alumni? Networking opportunities, invitation to be a part of reaching kids with the gospel, relationships, & community.

    • As with any other part of Young Life, we want our engagement of alumni to be transformational, not merely transactional.

  • The Alumni & Friends team will make it hard to say no 

    • Who wouldn’t want to go to a happy hour and reconnect with old friends?

    • Everyone is looking for community and relationships no matter their life stage.

    • Include alumni in celebrating what God is doing in the lives of kids in your local area.

    • Personal invitations are everyone’s favorite! Develop a culture of invitation among alumni: nothing is off limits!

Would a structure like this help your Area Director answer those initial three questions without expanding their bandwidth? YES! Consider this Young Life 2.0.: offering alumni & friends around the mission a chance to reconnect, re-engage, and continue the relationships that have always been at the core of Young Life. A win all around for sure!



Written by: Emily Lewis