Youth Ministries at Urbandale UCC:

Nursery & Child Care | Sunday School | Wednesday Night Alive! | Music | Confirmation | Our Whole Lives | Our Whole Lives K-2 | Queer & Affirming Ministry | 3rd–6th Grade Youth Group | 7th-12th Grade Youth Group

Volunteers

We always need Child Care volunteers, and Rev. Amy Galarowicz will be happy to train anyone interested in volunteering in our children’s ministries! Please contact Amy.

Sunday School

During the school year, 9:00-9:45 a.m.
See the Education page for more information.

Music

Sunday School Choir
See the Music page for more information.

Confirmation

Are you entering the 8th or 9th grade? Are you ready to learn more about our church and to grow in your life as a Christian? Confirmation class is designed for you! This is your chance to explore our history and who we are today—through music, art, and other expressions of faith. Please contact the church office to enroll in confirmation.

Our Whole Lives class (OWL)

OWL is a sexuality educational program for our post-confirmation youth that helps them gain the knowledge, values, and skills to lead sexually healthy, responsible lives. Every other year, youth going into 7th-9th grades are eligible to participate in OWL.

OWL is guided by the following two principles: parents have primary responsibility for sexuality education with their youth; and sexuality education begins at home and continues through open and honest communication between parents and youth. The values of this program include self-worth, sexual health, responsibility, justice and inclusivity. Unlike many other sexuality curricula available, this program is comprehensive and progressive.

The goals of this OWL curriculum are for youth to:

  1. Affirm and respect themselves as sexual persons and respect the sexuality of others.
  2. Increase comfort and skills for discussing and negotiating sexuality issues with peers, romantic partners and people of other generations.
  3. Explore, develop and articulate values, attitudes, and feelings about their own sexuality and the sexuality of others.
  4. Identify and live according to their values.
  5. Increase motivation and skills for developing a just sexual morality that rejects double standards, stereotypes, biases, exploitation,
  6. dishonesty and harassment.
  7. Acquire knowledge and skills for developing and maintaining romantic or sexual relationships that are consensual, mutually pleasurable,
  8. Nonexploitative, safe, and based on respect, mutual expectations and caring.
  9. Increase knowledge and skills for avoiding unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
  10. Express and enjoy sexuality in healthy and responsible ways at each stage of their development.
  11. Assess the impact of messages from family, culture, religion, media and society on sexual thoughts, feelings, values and behaviors.

We welcome youth outside our church, so please feel free to invite friends, neighbors, family and other interested folks.  Please contact Rev. Amy for more information.

NEW! Our Whole Lives K-2

We now have trained OWL facilitators for the K-2nd age group. This program affirms all kinds of families and helps children identify and avoid sexual abuse. It supports parents in educating children about birth, babies, bodies, families and learning how to be a “Askable Parent.” Following a Parent Meeting and Parent/Child Orientation, the 8 sessions engage children with stories, songs and activities and include a weekly HomeLink—a homework project for parents and children to do together and promotes dialogue between parent and child. Please contact Rev. Amy for more information.

OWL helps participants to build interpersonal skills and understand the spiritual, emotional and social aspects of sexuality. The curriculum is based on the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education produced by the National Guidelines Task Force, a group of leading health, education and sexuality professionals assembled by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

OWL schedule:

We will alternate K-2nd OWL and 4-6th OWL each spring.  The same is true with Confirmation and 7-9th OWL that runs each fall.

For more information about Pilgrim Heights camping opportunities, contact the Iowa Conference-United Church of Christ. For more information on camping scholarships, call our office at 515-276-0625.

Queer & Affirming (Q&A) Progressive Christian Youth & Adult Ministry

We have an exciting, ecumenical opportunity for youth (ages K-12 grade) and adults. Mark your calendars for the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the Lion Ralph Whitten Community Shelter in Lion’s Park.  Dinner will be provided. We will spend our first two gatherings in September building relationships and community.

QUEER AND AFFIRMING MINISTRY:  Volunteers Needed!

Please let Rev. Amy know if you have questions or would like to volunteer. We need folks to help with food preparation, set-up, clean-up, lead small groups (curriculum & and activities provided), and help plan for future mission & social justice opportunities. You will need to complete our UUCC Safety Training and complete a background check, as with all our youth ministries. See more information on our Education page.

Page updated: October 4, 2023

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