On Fellowship

To wrap up, we’re highlighting the purpose of leveraging a sense of renewal, of centering community and connection, and offering opportunities in which young people, their parents/caregivers, and their networks of support (including program staff!) experience belonging.

Many of our programs are just like at a dinner table – everyone brings their appetite and preferences. The best meals are a magical combination of good food, side conversations, small talk, meeting new people, and maybe a lengthy sobremesa to talk over a light dessert and a warm drink.

Centering belonging requires everyone’s unique contributions. Belonging is a feeling, yet our programs often face pressures that distract from the relationship building needed to explore, understand, and support what our program communities need to feel seen, heard, respected, and connected. Even more, our communities are multifaceted, and, as a community of communities, we are still working to co-create environments where differences lead to connection instead of disconnection.

• Difference and belonging might seem to be distant concepts. Differences are present in the multiple ways of thinking, feeling, believing, and valuing in your community. Belonging comes from experiencing meaningful relationships within the environments we navigate.
• What bridges difference and belonging? Opportunities to build relationships among people with shared interests, goals, and passions are the bridge. In other words, fellowship. Fellowship does not contradict difference. Quite the opposite, fellowship allows communities to tap into the richness brought by differences and the protective/enabling potential of belonging.