Interfaith Youth Core
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Better Together Campaign and Interfaith Leadership Institutes (ILIs)
Better Together is IFYC's interfaith action campaign, which mobilizes college students across the
country to elevate civil discourse on religion and engage in service across lines of difference to impact issues of social concern in their communities. After attending IFYC's four-day Interfaith Leadership Institute (ILI), student leaders work with their peers to
select a social issue relevant to their campus and surrounding community that
engages students’ shared values. Leaders coordinate their Better Together campaign and lead advocacy events, challenging their community to think about what has
happened, and could happen, when religious diversity is engaged for the common
good. In its inaugural year, 94 campaigns across the country reached more than
10,000 students and addressed issues such as homelessness,
food deserts, and environmental sustainability, among others.At theInterfaith
Leadership Institute (ILI), IFYC equips students and campus allies (faculty
and staff) to start a movement for interfaith cooperation on their campuses.
Participants learn how Better Together,
IFYC’s student-led campaign for interfaith action, can help them implement this
vision, and obtain the knowledge base and skill set to mobilize the student
body and greater community through interfaith action to address issues of
social concern. To accomplish these goals, students and campus allies attend nine training sessions over the four-day ILI, and participate in modeled Better Together campaign events to learn best practices and begin planning their own campaigns.The ILI curriculum is designed to: (1) inspire participants to become
interfaith leaders, (2) train them to plan interfaith community service events and
empower others’ interfaith leadership, and (3) spread the message and impact of
their interfaith action through traditional and social media. ILI trainings
instill a strong foundation for interfaith action: campus delegations build
meaningful relationships within their group, craft a shared action plan for
their campus, and gain awareness of other student organizations and campus
allies that will amplify their campaign efforts. The ILI also provides an
environment to cultivate cross-campus relationships among student leaders, campus
allies, alumni coaches, and IFYC, thereby creating a networked national
movement for interfaith action through Better Together. You may read more about the Better Together campaign and ILI at http://www.ifyc.org/better-together.
President's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge
In 2010, the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and
Neighborhood Partnerships, on which IFYC Founder and President Eboo Patel was an inaugural member, presented President Obama with a set of
recommendations on how the U.S. government can better facilitate partnerships
with U.S. religious communities. One of the recommendations was to initiate a
public campaign within higher education to scale and strengthen program
partnerships with federal agencies that increase dialogue and service between
people from a diversity of faith-based and secular groups, building mutual understanding
and serving the common good.
Launched in
March 2011, the President’s Interfaith and Community Service
Campus Challenge
invites institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith
cooperation and community service programming on campus. Through this historic
challenge, President Obama elevated interfaith cooperation as a national
priority by calling on American colleges and universities to serve as models
for building bridges across lines of difference. IFYC is a lead partner and advisor to the President’s Challenge, offering the tools,
resources, and technical assistance to support participating colleges and
universities. Following the launch, over 270 colleges and universities submitted robust plans to participate in the Challenge and executed outstanding interfaith action programming on campus during the 2011-2012
academic year.
As part of its partner role, IFYC co-coordinated a national gathering for participating campuses on August 3, 2011. The convening drew 360 attendees representing 240 community
colleges, four-year colleges, universities, and theological schools across the
country. IFYC and its partners organized sessions providing technical assistance on cultivating interfaith cooperation on campus, supporting student leadership development, and creating campus partnerships.
Throughout
the academic year, IFYC will continue to provide support for participating
institutions to ensure that the plans submitted have the best chance of success
on each campus. IFYC will also play a key role in selecting the institutions that
are recognized as “exemplary” for excellence in programming and execution at
the end of the academic year. You may read more about IFYC's role in the President's Challenge here: http://www.ifyc.org/presidents-challenge(http://www.ifyc.org/presidents-challenge) .
Alumni Program
Over the last 10 years our trainings, resources, and leadership programs have empowered hundreds of interfaith leaders on five continents. These alumni are part of a growing movement of young leaders working to make interfaith cooperation a social norm on campuses, at work, and in their communities. Our newly launched alumni network supports and engages these young leaders to be advocates for change, as part of a community of peers committed to building interfaith cooperation. Offerings of IFYC's alumni program include:
A connection to interfaith career opportunities or other influential positions in higher education and national religious bodies;
An opportunity for alumni to speak to audiences nationwide about interfaith cooperation through the Alumni Speakers Bureau, a group of 20-25 outstanding alumni leaders;
Funding for interfaith and community service projects started by IFYC alumni; and
Networking opportunities, national gatherings, and other professional development opportunities!
You may read more about IFYC's alumni offerings here: http://www.ifyc.org/content/alumni(http://www.ifyc.org/content/alumni) .
Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey
The Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey (CRSCS) is an assessment tool designed to assist campus leaders as they navigate the challenges and possibilities that religious and worldview diversity bring to higher education institutions. The survey gauges college students’ perceptions of key climate dimensions and profiles attitudes and behaviors related to interfaith engagement.
The CRSCS was developed in 2009 and piloted on two occasions by higher education scholars, Dr. Alyssa Bryant Rockenbach (North Carolina State University) and Dr. Matthew Mayhew (New York University). Recently, Dr. Mayhew and Dr. Bryant Rockenbach partnered with Interfaith Youth Core to integrate the campus climate dimensions of the instrument with new measures specifically intended to assess interfaith action and related attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The partnership led to the development of a comprehensive instrument designed in response to the many questions and challenges with which postsecondary administrators and educators are currently contending. You may read more about the CRSCS at www.ifyc.org/crscs.
Campus Partnerships
College campuses that intentionally engage religious diversity can serve as models of interfaith cooperation for the rest of society. IFYC partners with institutions of higher education, ranging from two-day trainings to multi-year engagements, to foster relationships, programs, and priorities that will ignite and sustain a campus-wide movement for interfaith cooperation.
In its assessment partnerships, IFYC works with key stakeholders on campus to survey and asset-map existing institutional strengths and opportunities to engage interfaith cooperation. Based on this assessment process, IFYC presents a two-year roadmap of strategic initiatives to make interfaith cooperation a reality on campus - by deepening student interfaith leadership, aligning institutional assets and priorities, and engaging religious diversity in the classroom. You may read more about IFYC's campus engagement services at http://www.ifyc.org/engagements(http://www.ifyc.org/engagements) .
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Interfaith Youth Core
Board of directorsas of 03/10/2020
Mr. Brad Henderson
P33
Robert Gertner
Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago
Anne Hallett
Grow Your Own Illinois
Tarek Elmasry
McKinsey & Company
Sunil Garg
Exelon Corporation
Stephen Bell
Grady, Pilgrim, Christakis, & Bell
Ronald Kinnamon
YMCA of the USA
Howard Morgan
Citibank Corporation
Susan Thistlethwaite
Center for American Progress
William Enright
Lake Institute of Faith & Giving, The Center on Philanthropy
Jeffrey Levy
Activate3D
Gail Rosseau
Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch
Alan and Andrea Solow
DLA Piper
Richard and Susan Kiphart
William Blair
S.A. and Winston Ibrahim
Radian Group; Hydros Bottle
Connie Duckworth
Arzu, Inc.
Frederick Davie
Union Theological Seminary
Ansaf Kareem
McKinsey & Company
Thomas Levinson
Reed Smith, LLP
Whitney Addington