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