Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) becomes "FYI"
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09/05/08
On September 2, Fuller’s Center for Youth and Family Ministry (CYFM) was officially re-launched with a new name, the Fuller Youth Institute (or FYI).
After much consultation with constituencies both internal and external, the new name was chosen both because it is memorable and it well captures the institute’s mission of supporting youth and family workers. “We are thrilled to have this new name that is easy to remember,” says Kara Powell, the institute’s executive director, “with an FYI acronym that reflects our mission of translating research into resources that transform youth and family ministry.”
The institute has also unveiled a new website with a new look, at www.fulleryouthinstitute.org.
Also connected to the renaming is the release of a new two-part training book entitled Deep Leadership: Training Onramps for Your Youth Ministry Team, a resource that provides nine months of research-based training for youth ministries and includes a volunteer journal.
Authored by Kara Powell with contributions from Fuller faculty and alumni/ae, Deep Leadership offers youth workers team-based training modules that are easy to use but also geared for heavy contextualization based on the particular needs of leaders, kids, and communities. Its companion piece, the Deep Leadership Training Journal, helps volunteers apply the training to their lives and ministries. Both resources are available for purchase as electronic downloads through December 15, 2008 at the new FYI website.
In addition to these new offerings, FYI will now produce their free FYI E-Journal monthly instead of bimonthly.
The FYI name change does not in any way change the research activities, resources, and services offered by the institute. “We are still a cross-disciplinary center, drawing from the expertise of Fuller’s Schools of Theology, Psychology, and Intercultural Studies,” says Powell.
“The Fuller Youth Institute has a special and unique place in the world of youth ministry: they bring consistent and regular scholarship and research to regular, in-the-trenches youth workers,” says Mark Oestreicher, president of Youth Specialties. Members of the FYI staff look forward to continuing this important work under their new name.
For more information about the resources and research of FYI, visit their website at www.fulleryouthinstitute.org.
To listen to a recent podcast with Kara Powell, click here.