How a Mentoring Program is Empowering Adolescents

“I love that one main element of the junior youth program is to help young people develop their powers of expression,” says Kim Wu, a Baha’i living in Los Angeles, California.

Kim’s referring to an area of service that many Baha’is worldwide are involved in: the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program. It’s a mentoring program for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15 that seeks to “to help young people form a strong moral identity in their early adolescent years and empower them to contribute to the well-being of their communities.”

In this short clip from “The Race Unity Project,” Kim reflects on the impact this program is having on adolescents around the United States. Building the capacity of young people to be champions of race unity in their families, schools, and neighborhoods is a key outcome of the program. Indeed, the video effort is produced by Journalism for Change, Inc, a nonprofit media organization founded by filmmaker and human rights activist Maziar Bahari. The project tells “the century-long story of the American Baha’i community and its efforts — as well as its tests and challenges — in promoting race unity.”

Watch as Kim shares how meaningful it is to engage with these young people, who are “so acutely aware of the injustices in the world” and are trying to “develop their skills and capacities to help think about solutions.”