Featured Action: Apply to the Faith Acts Fellowship

Published December 10, 2008 @ 12:29PM PT

Our friends at the Interfaith Youth Core, in collaboration with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, have just announced the launch of the Faith Acts Fellowship - one of the single most innovative youth fellowships I've seen. I've just featured this action which is a pledge to apply for the program.

In short, the fellowship does what IFYC does best - connecting interfaith exploration with on-the-ground service in order to understand what connects, rather than divides, people with different backgrounds and experiences. Student fellows will spend two months in intensive training with IFYC in Chicago and the Tony Blair Foundation in London, then spend a month in a primary health care setting in Africa. Paired with a partner of a different faith, they will have a chance to see how the ability to communicate and work together effectively across faith lines can mean the difference between life and death in some settings. With this experience under their belts, they will spend 8 months in their home communities raising awareness.

The Interfaith Youth Core, led by Ashoka Fellow Eboo Patel, is a model of social entrepreneurship's capacity to look at old problems in new ways. Rather than simply dialoguing about abstract connections between faith, IFYC puts young people into service contexts that actually draw out shared traditions. Its a powerful model and one we're thrilled to support.

So sign the pledge, and if you know a young person, pass it on to them! Additionally, check out the fellowship's webpage or vote for IFYC's Idea for Change in America: Support Interfaith Cooperation.

Finally, check out some IFYCers explain their desire to serve:

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Comments (1)

Nathaniel - I am impressed but not surprised. Your generation is imbued with a strong sense of service to others. As I progress through my sixth decade on earth, and my fourth decade in service to my faith community, I am honored to write this message to you and your brothers and sisters worldwide.Despite my admission of age, a number that my 94 year old mother says is arbitrary, I am the father of a six year old, and I can tire him out despite his strong constitution and his liveliness.I am therefore, by my mother's reckoning, " middle aged" and pray that my son shares your thirst for worldwide equality and justice. We earnestly pray for your endeavours.

Posted by A B on 12/10/2008 @ 12:44PM PT
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Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.