QVS Recruiting and Marketing Coordinator Director Ruth Cutcher shares with us about a workshop she’s co-hosting.
Quaker Voluntary Service will be presenting a workshop at this year’s FGC gathering. Rachael Carter and Ruth Cutcher will lead a workshop called “Spirit Led Community Building.” Rachael (they/them) is the Philadelphia Coordinator and is a QVS alum (Atlanta 2018-19). Ruth (she/her) is the Recruitment Coordinator for QVS and has served in this role since October 2022.
We chose the topic of community building for several reasons. There is a loneliness epidemic and we sense that programs like QVS that teach intentional community building play an important role in addressing loneliness among young adults. Quakers have a long history of community building and community care is a Quaker super power!
Well before COVID entered the scene and caused all of us to stay home in isolation, scholars had noted that there was a loneliness epidemic. Two age groups particularly susceptible to isolation and loneliness are the elderly and, surprisingly, young adults. A 2024 poll by the American Psychiatric Association, revealed that 30% of young adults aged 18-34 feel lonely every day or several times per week. Loneliness is considered to be a risk factor for many health concerns including depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Well before COVID entered the scene and caused all of us to stay home in isolation, scholars had noted that there was a loneliness epidemic…One way to address the loneliness epidemic is to find community. If a person can’t find a community around them that is a good fit, having the skills to build a community can help.
One way to address the loneliness epidemic is to find community. If a person can’t find a community around them that is a good fit, having the skills to build a community can help. At QVS, we use the time we have with Fellows to teach them frameworks for community building. In our abbreviated version of the QVS curriculum, we hope to share some of our most effective frameworks with FGC participants.
We said earlier that community care is a Quaker super power and we really mean that! Quakers have a long history of taking great care of their community members. We have practices and processes that are time tested and infused with spirit. The community building skills we teach to QVS Fellows are steeped in Quaker tradition. They are also updated to be relevant for young adults. We expect that some of the activities in our workshop will feel familiar to the Quakers attending FGC. However, we hope that there will also be some refreshing updates and surprises.
We are excited to do the workshop and can’t wait to see how our FGC/QVS Spirit Led Community Building experiment goes! We are excited to learn from our participants as well as share what we have learned through our work with young adults at QVS.
If you are interested in participating in this workshop, you still have a few days to register for The Gathering! We hope to see you there!
More about Ruth (she/her)
Ruth (she/her) joined Quaker Voluntary Service in October of 2022. Ruth is a convinced Friend and a member of Durango Friends Meeting in Durango, CO. She holds a Master of Divinity from Earlham School of Religion. When she is not at work, Ruth can be found in her garden, at the local gym picking up heavy things or cooking yummy food to share with her friends.
What sorts of programming and tools are Fellows offered during their year?
Every other week throughout the nine and a half month fellowship, QVS Fellows attend QVS Days instead of working at their site placements.
QVS Days offer Fellows a chance to slow down and be in community. For the first part of the year, QVS staff take the lead in planning and facilitating QVS Days. They support Fellows in exploring their individual and communal journeys, as well as discussing work, community living, Quakerism, spiritual practices, and social justice issues. As the year progresses, Fellows take a more active role in planning and facilitating QVS Days.
Over the course of the year, Fellows learn tools like: clerking and Quaker decision-making processes, clearness committees, conflict transformation, signs of defensiveness, and tons more. Additionally, at the start of the year, Fellows attend a week-long orientation with all QVS Fellows from across the country, as well as a mid-year and a closing retreat with their city cohort.
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