Ubuntu Youth & Young Adult Group Lexington, KY
A community support and empowerment group for youths and young adults between 10 to 25 years old.
Welcome!
Mission
To provide an Ubuntu-safe space that promotes empowerment, support, character development, holistic wellbeing, and the pursuit of inherited dreams and purpose.
Vision
A community where youths and young adults are supported and empowered to thrive as they pursue their inherited dreams and purpose for community development.
Ubuntu Values
Friendship, Respect for Individuality, Unity in diversity, solidarity, compassion, generosity, love, respect, dignity, acceptance, social justice, equality, equity.
Ubuntu Motto
“Ubuntu! I am because we are!”
Monthly Meetings
We meet on the third Saturdays of each month for support, empowerment, and learning.
Programs and Activities
We explore life and our own stories, our struggles, and the successes stories of others in the community.
We provide community support for youths and young adults, especially in challenging times.
To promote empowerment through Ubuntu community ideas and skills for character development, resilience, and holistic wellbeing in the face of adversity as they pursue their inherited dreams and purposes.
Adinkra Symbols from The Akan’s in Ghana (West African Wisdom)
Aya
Aya means “fern.” It is a symbol of endurance, independence, defiance against difficulties, hardiness, perseverance, and resourcefulness.
“Sankofa” Go back and take it (Reflection)
To reflect on the past for important lessons for the present and the future. A symbol for the wisdom of learning from the past to build for the future. From the Akan proverb, "Se wo were firi na wosan kofa a, yenkyiri," meaning, "It is not taboo to go back for what you forgot (or left behind)."
“Sankofa” Go back and take it (Reflection)
This stylized heart with spirals is an alternative representation of the Sankofa symbol. The coils in the spirals represent returning to the past, one's roots, to draw lessons for the present and the future.
(From Adinkra.org)
"Boafo Ye Na,"
"Boafo ye na," literally means "Helpers are rare" The scarcity of a willing helper. It is a symbol of support, patronage, cooperation, and teamwork.
Akoma/Heart.
A symbol of love, goodwill, patience, faithfulness, fondness, endurance, and consistency.
“Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu” The Conjoined crocodiles or Siamese crocodile.
A symbol of unity in diversity.
The story is that the Conjoined crocodiles or Siamese crocodile share one stomach, yet they fight over food. This reminds us that in infightings are harmful to human flourishing. In our shared commonalities, unity is paramount.
(From Adinkra.org)
Ubuntu Safe Space Principles
Safe Space
Ubuntu safe space provides:
- A supportive and non-judgmental environment.
- Unconditional love and acceptance.
- A sense of belonging and identity.
- The freedom to own oneself as individual and communal.
- The courage to be vulnerable.
- The ability to develop resilience and thrive.
- Empowerment for social, psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing as they pursue their dreams and purpose.
The Sacredness of Our Shared Space
The spirit of Ubuntu recognizes the intersubjective spaces among people and honors it as sacred. Members of this group, therefore, learn to:
- Recognize the shared communal space and hold it with respect and dignity.
- Recognize the humanity in others.
- Acknowledge that we all belong to a greater whole.
- Develop the awareness of self and others and create that respective space.
- Recognize that our individual actions ripple and affect ourselves and others.
- Recognize and appreciate the blessings that each one brings into the shared space (each one's ideas/inputs, presence, support, talents, intelligence, understanding, wisdom, and skills).
- Cherish their rights to life, freedom, and pursuit of meaning and purpose.