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Religion

Church announces updates to new ‘Children and Youth’ initiative

Mormon Newsroom

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on May 8, 2018 that it will launch a worldwide initiative for children and youth in January 2020. (Mormon Newsroom)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced updates to the global Children and Youth initiative that will replace the Boy Scouts and Personal Progress programs in 2020. 

The First Presidency originally announced this new program just over a year ago. 

“For years, Church leaders have been preparing a new initiative to teach and provide leadership and development opportunities to all children and youth, to support families, and to strengthen youth everywhere as they develop faith in the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” said The First Presidency in the May 8 announcement. 

According to a letter sent Monday to general authorities, general officers and local leaders of the Church, a special broadcast with President M. Russell Ballard will be held on Sept. 29 to introduce the new Children and Youth initiative.

A Children and Youth Face to Face Event with Elder Gerrit W. Gong will be broadcast on Nov. 17.

Additional details will be posted between now and January 2020 to ChildrenandYouth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Another website is now available for stake presidents and bishops to help children and youth prepare for the new program and contains resources like introductory guides, a schedule and information explaining the similarities and differences between the new initiative and current programs.

The letter also said the Church will discontinue participation in current programs including Scouting, Personal Progress, Duty to God and Faith in God on Dec. 31.

“Young women who wish to receive the Young Womanhood Recognition, young men who wish to complete the Duty to God program and children who wish to complete the Faith in God program should complete the requirements before January 1, 2020. As an exception, if children or youth need additional time, the awards will be available to order until March 1, 2020. Anyone who wished to participate in Scouting may participate in Scouting groups in their local community.” 

The new Children and Youth program will be effective Jan. 1, 2020 in areas where members speak ASL, Cantonese, Cebuano, English, French, German, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog and Tongan.

Materials will be available March 1, 2020 in additional languages, including Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Fijian, Finnish, Greek, Haitian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Kekchi, Kiribati, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Malay, Marshallese, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swahili, Swedish, Tahitian, Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.