Strategies to Transform Your Masjid for Youth Engagement

“Youth are the destiny of this network.“

“Youth are the torchbearers of Islam.”

“Young Muslims are our top priority!”

Q. How regularly have we heard those empty slogans at our Masjids?

Q. Unfortunately, those aspirations of our Masjid leaders and Imams, though frequently sincere, aren’t pondered with inside the association and allocation of time and resources. If young people improvement or young people engagement isn’t always at the time table of our meetings, how can it’s a “priority” for our Masjid?

Q. If younger Muslim males and females aren’t even a part of our committees, or management today, how are we able to assume to by skip at the torch to them tomorrow?

Q. If there’s no finances object for young people work or young people engagement, why proclaim our dedication to serve and keep the following era of Islam?

We have already ignored at the least generations of smart, educated, and devoted younger Muslim women and men in North America.

This systemic forget on our element as network leaders has resulted in lots of younger specialists distancing themselves from conventional locations of worship. There is a whole “unmosqued” motion born out of this frustration. Many younger, practicing Muslims had been searching for “1/3 spaces” to spark off their volunteer efforts.

Although a few Masjids and Islamic facilities have turn out to be extra young people-aware and young people-pleasant over the last decade, we’ve a protracted manner to head in phrases of significant young people engagement.

Here are a few conceptual and realistic suggestions to reconsider and reorganize our Masjid Management, Islamic facilities, and network agencies for fantastic and powerful young people engagement.

1. Go past the “young people center” claim

Most human beings in our network don’t purchase it anymore. They have visible such a lot of Masjids elevating budget for a theoretical “young people center”, that is frequently an invisible a part of the development plan, to be constructed a era or later. Instead, spend money on designing particular young people applications and services. Before you construct a gym, construct a crew of active younger Muslim leaders who can run those facilities.

2. Before you construct a minaret, rent a certified young people employee:

This will be the closing evidence of your dedication to young people engagement at your Masjid or center. Hiring a skilled young people employee who can relate to and mobilize young people is as important as hiring a certified Imam and administrator. Those few Masjids which have recruited a young people coordinator/employee, have visible their whole congregations and network rework right into a active hub.

3. Publicly get admission to young people to convert your Masjid’s culture:

It takes time and taking note of increase activities and initiatives that younger Muslims absolutely care for. It calls for enormous session with young people, studies on first-class practices with inside the mainstream and Muslim communities, and restructuring of your masjid’s monetary resources. Have a print and on-line survey for young people to post their ideas. Organize a focal point institution consultation with key younger leaders.

4. Invite younger leaders to sign up for your Masjid and deal with them like leaders:

Young Muslims are smart, tech-and-media-savvy, and creative. Mentor them together along with your revel in and wisdom, and provide them room to test and make mistakes. Don’t deal with them or their paintings as insignificant. Value and understand their contribution to the masjid and the network.

5. Allocate a few quantities out of your finances for young people improvement and engagement:

Yes, it could sound a lot, however it’s going to repay extra than your investment. Remember, over 30% of Muslims in Canada and the US are young people! Please examine extra on the way to reorganize our time and donations for network empowerment.

6. Go beyond “young people lecture”:

Engagement is greater than instructional lectures. Given the constrained interest span of young people and the tradition of distractions, way to the explosive boom of social media, texting, and gadgets, maximum young people aren’t inquisitive about one-manner communication. Youth engagement, from a programming perspective, calls for interaction, entertainment, and experiential getting to know.

7. Make your young people packages and centers accessible.

When a few church buildings with inside the US desired to win returned young people, they found out younger oldsters live up past due at night, and therefore started to preserve packages at some stage in the past due evenings. Similarly, a few Islamic facilities these days had been permitting young people to preserve informative packages past due nights, specifically on weekends. 

8. Realize, younger human beings aren’t “lazy” or “non-committed”, as they’re regularly perceived:

It’s the manner too many Masjid and network leaders have interaction them this is antique faculty and doesn’t work. Before you have interaction younger Muslims as volunteers and leaders, restructure and reconsider your volunteer recruitment methods.

Experience and studies have proven that technology Y and Millennials (the ones born with inside the 1990’s and beyond) think about volunteerism very in a different way than their dad and mom do. It’s now not sufficient to have young people “signal up” and count on them to simply display up at the following occasion to volunteer.

Similarly, giving them fancy titles without involvement in decision-making and without right expectancies and responsibility mechanisms doesn’t work.

Here are a few key volunteerism tendencies located in those generations, with inside the Muslim network and outside:

a. Young human beings are brand-conscious. “Muslim young people are maximum interested in large manufacturers and large activities which have effect,”. They take delight of their Muslim identification as they volunteer for recognized agencies and causes. Develop packages and initiatives which have a seen effect with inside the network.

b. Young human beings are searching out consequences. They are result-driven, as they’ve constrained time, juggling faculty, socialization, family, and volunteer work. They don’t want to be concerned in lengthy conferences and complex planning. As studies has additionally proven, this “Googled Generation” is searching out immediately gratification.

They need consequences now. Ensure the activities and sports you contain young people produce concrete consequences, including running in a fundraising gala, activities etc.

c. Young human beings are searching out special or specific studies. For younger volunteers or leaders, it isn’t only an experience of delight and possibility to socialize and develop with like-minded human beings this is important. A special enjoy, including get admission to a pupil is likewise a chief motivation.

In this tradition of selfies, stay broadcasts, and immediately social media sharing, such extremely good volunteer studies move viral. Think of innovative methods to make the young people volunteer enjoy unique and extremely good in case you need young people coming returned.

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