Muslim Youth of North America
POSITIONING DOCUMENT
This document aims to explain the nature of this organization, the focus of its work, and the strategies chosen to accomplish our goals. This document will attempt to demonstrate the reasons why an organization like this is needed and to answer some basic questions that parents and community institutions may have. We welcome feedback and comments from youth, families, community institutions, and national organizations on ways to improve the services that we provide.
WHO WE ARE
Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA) is dedicated to youth programming and issues. In accepting and nurturing environments youth develop qualities that serve them all their lives. MYNA exists in that environment and its primary aim is to strengthen that environment.
Vision and Mission
MYNA has a simple vision: Exemplary Youth
a worthy example of a young person in the stage of growth and life before adulthood.
An exemplary youth is…
•Striving towards excellence through a relationship with and consciousness of Allah.
•Engaged in the life-long process of gaining knowledge.
•Active in doing deeds that build an honorable character.
•Initiator of positive influence in school and in the community.
Our Mission is to inspire youth and facilitate an environment that cultivates in them a knowledge of self.
Knowledge of self is the most important thing a youth must work to achieve. It includes the challenges of resolving issues of identity, and gaining an awareness of one’s duties and responsibilities. This requires an inner struggle that is nurtured by a cultivating environment. Knowledge of self can come from what youth do in their immediate environment. A youth’s environment includes the family and the community in which the youth lives. It should allow youth to grow to their full potential. With the resources available to us we work to inspire youth and facilitate youth-related needs of communities. We inspire them with our example and the opportunities we provide for youth to excel. We facilitate by providing assistance to those families and community institutions that want to create a cultivating environment for their youth.
Beginnings
MYNA is a 501(c)3 affiliate organization of the Islamic Society of North America. It began in 1985 as an organization for Muslim youth in middle school and high school living in the United States and Canada. MYNA served as a platform for organizing activities, a forum for discussing issues, and a resource for gaining valuable skills and knowledge. MYNA organized leadership training and recreational camps; helped to establish youth groups; and explored the American Muslim identity at conferences and seminars. It was an organization for Muslim youth, by Muslim youth at a time when there was nothing else.
Growth
Over the years, the cost-benefit balance established initially in the creation of the youth-advisor, continental-zonal-regional-local structure degraded. The cost of a youth led structure, and the dependence upon volunteers surpassed their benefits. The challenges presented by the old structure of MYNA became increasingly apparent. Changes were suggested, and some were made, but only within the general parameters of the original structure and with limited success. Furthermore the context in which MYNA operates has changed dramatically. The nature of the Muslim community has changed. The community has grown to a level that did not exist at the time MYNA was created, it is larger, more developed, and more active locally. There are more youth activities in one major metropolitan city now than there were in a whole region before. More community institutions need assistance on youth issues than ever before. Parents need help in understanding issues related to an American Muslim identity. Youth clubs in high schools need resources. Youth need help creating youth groups or organizing events in cities that had none before. In the present situation, MYNA believes that the most dynamic youth should stay active in the local communities, working in the local environment. MYNA is the organization that these youth, parents, and community institutions can turn to for assistance when they need it. It has the experience and the energy that youth work demands.
Reinvention
In the summer of 1998, MYNA commissioned a study of the situation and the formulation of a proposal for reinventing MYNA. From 2000-2001 the proposal was reviewed and discussed by MYNA youth officers and advisors. In the summer of 2002 the Board of Advisors took on the task of carrying out the recommendations from the proposal. In the spring 2003 a new vision, mission and goals were crafted and have been presented in this positioning document.
Today, MYNA is a dynamic, independent organization working to establish a viable and sustainable institution that assists families and communities to play the leading role in the development of exemplary youth. MYNA now has a renewed focus on the development of local youth work and the mechanism is the facilitation of youth work by assisting those who have the primary and secondary responsibilities of raising the youth – parents, schools, and mosques.
Structure
MYNA has a new commitment to efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of products and services directly to local communities over the previous priority of training youth by placing them in charge of a continental organization. The earlier youth-advisor structure has been replaced with a self-perpetuating board of directors who hire an executive director to run the organization. MYNA now approaches youth work in an organic, bottom up fashion, and expects the development of organizational structures beyond the local level to be gradual and upon the initiative of the local communities. Consequently, the continental, zonal, and regional structure will not be actively perpetuated. Youth will be empowered in the local communities by being involved in every phase of the planning and execution of local youth activities and programs. While the basic elements of the structure have been established, some elements from the reinvention proposal such as a support staff and the range of products and services offered will increase over time, as a track record is established, as qualified persons are identified, and as greater financial resources become available. Details about the structure can be found in the MYNA By-Laws.
WHAT WE DO
MYNA has reorganized itself to provide quality products and services that address the various dimensions of living as American Muslims and Muslim Americans, including exciting youth organized continental activities that carry the potential to effect change. These products and services will be implemented in a manner that respects the particular communities needs, concerns, and approaches towards youth work. The following is a draft of our priorities. There is a separate Strategic Plan that contains implementation recommendations by task forces composed of youth, parents, scholars, and former MYNA members.
PRIMARY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
- A Website Portal to our database
This is the primary service MYNA provides to youth and communities that want to organize activities. The database can contain information gathered from youth groups and former youth workers all across North America. It can include an archive and analysis of various youth activities that have taken place since the inception of MYNA; an analysis on the speakers and scholars that have participated in those activities; a demographic analysis on the youth of various communities; and an analysis of the various national and local, Muslim and Non-Muslim resources. The website can serve as the means to make this information available to all who need access to it.
- A Waqf for long-term self sufficiency
The goal is to have a source of funds for any major youth activity available upon request. An initial1000 people donate 1000 dollars. That money is placed in a waqf and is always there to sustain the organization and any activity it supports. There is the added benefit of activity organizers not having to spend time and resources to generate funds, instead they can count on the availability of seed money and spend their time and resources organizing the events and programs that are vital for their communities.
- Programs that assist families and communities
There is a need for activities that help bridge any perceived generation gap, and programs that educate parents and youth about various issues important to them. In conjunction with these family and youth programs, MYNA can provide resources for youth counselors and social workers and leaders active in local community institutions. MYNA can also work with local communities by providing experienced advisors that can help establish youth groups and youth activities where none exist. For established communities it can provide resources for strengthening existing youth groups and their activities. This also includes finding and coordinating opportunities for individual youth and youth groups to do service activities in their communities.
SECONDARY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
- Resources for High School youth work
In larger communities, where there are several Muslim youth in the same high school, the youth require assistance and support when organizing clubs and conducting prayers in school. MYNA can provide services to educate prayer leaders, and will conduct a legal analysis on religion in public schools to further clarify the issues these clubs need to address to safeguard their activities. MYNA can also provide support services for Muslim high school students who join service clubs. This support can come in the form of information to adult advisors of these clubs.
- Nationwide programs for skills development
Youth in middle school and high school need to start developing various skills in order to succeed in college and in their communities. MYNA can work with test preparation companies to design programs and discounts for Muslim community institutions and individual youth. MYNA can organize college preparation programs that address the unique challenges faced and the skills needed by Muslim youth as they enter college for the first time. MYNA can provide opportunities for youth leaders to learn organizational skills. Aside from these programs, MYNA can provide an opportunity for youth groups to build team working skills through knowledge, debate, and athletic competitions held locally, regionally and nationally.
- Resources for Islamic higher education
Parents need access to programs where they can be assured that a youth will gain a competency in Islamic studies, Arabic language, and Quran memorization without compromising the American Muslim identity of the youth. MYNA can build partnerships with educators who already provide these services and make them available to parents and youth nationwide. In the absence of any existing programs, MYNA can develop them.
- Programs that build a connection with our civilization
Muslims have had over 1400 years of growth and decline in our civilization. North America is not the first place that Muslims have come as a minority, having to establish themselves and develop a uniquely Muslim culture within the larger culture. MYNA can organize programs where all youth learn the history and the contributions Muslims have made to civilization. This can be done through study abroad programs, guided group tours, and museum exhibitions.
- Programs that reinforce the arts and humanities
Many youth are blessed with talents aside from athletics and need a platform and forum for growth. MYNA can reinforce these talents by providing guilds where youth who share a particular talent can learn and discuss ways to build upon it. MYNA can establish a writers guild for those skilled in creative writing and poetry; a performing arts guild for those skilled in theater and music; and an art guild for those skilled in graphic and visual arts. MYNA can organize development programs, competitions, and exhibitions that engage these youth.
- Programs that build a connection with our natural environment
North America has some of the most spectacular national parks and monuments. Youth need to have an awareness of and respect for the natural environment in which they live. MYNA can take advantage of the accessibility to these places through contacts Nationwide. MYNA can organize or provide assistance to youth groups and communities that want to organize programs and camping trips to these sites.
- Programs to assist youth with disabilities
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed to ensure access to those with disabilities. MYNA can work to provide access to youth with disabilities to education and skills development opportunities, as well as any support that families, and community institutions require to address the needs of Muslim youth who are deaf, mute or blind.
- A Think tank for issues facing youth growing up Muslim in America
The issues and challenges facing youth are constantly evolving. Issues exist now that did not exist before, while others will exist in the future. MYNA can engage scholars to write position papers and conduct studies on these issues. These papers and studies can be made available to youth, families, and communities. These papers can help MYNA design and provide the best products and services that the issue demands.
