There are many roles for adults to play in SAYF.

Parent Visitor – Parents are invited to join retreats any time they wish.  Some parents come in for a few hours or for a particular activity.  Some help to drive when there are retreat activities away from the local Friends Meeting. Others come for a full retreat to learn about the program.  If parents wish to attend more than two retreats, we ask them to complete the adult volunteer application process (see link below) for the safety of our youth.

Meeting Contact – Every Monthly Meeting that sends teens to SAYF retreats is asked to have an adult who is the SAYF contact person in their meeting. This person is responsible for organizing the teens at their meeting to attend retreats, including sharing registration information, and arranging transportation.

Friendly Adult Drivers [FAD] – Monthly meetings are responsible for transporting teens to and from retreats.  The SAYF program offers queries [link] for monthly meetings to consider when discerning who can be a FAD. Friendly Adult Drivers may or may not stay at a weekend retreat depending on their desire and the level of their background check.  The lead FAN of any retreat can assist FADs in identifying housing if needed. 

Night Shepherd – A Night Shepherd is an adult who has completed the SAYF adult volunteer process who joins the retreat only for 4 hours a night.  The responsibility of the Night Shepherd is to stay awake during their shift to help in the case of emergency and to generally ensure the safety of the young Friends and FANs as they sleep. Night Shepherd Guidelines

Friendly Adult Nurturer [FAN] – FANs are adults who have completed the adult application process and attend weekend retreats with the youth.  These adults participate in the weekend programming and stay at the Meeting House over two nights when possible. They are often also approved as a driver from their home Meeting.

Lead Friendly Adult Nurture – Lead FANs are adults who have attended several retreats and guide the local teens to design and organize retreats at their meeting.  The lead FAN is responsible to share information about the retreat with the Meeting Contacts. They are responsible for ensuring that the programming at the retreat is supported adequately to ensure safe fellowship throughout the weekend. Lead FANs are responsible to collect retreat fees, medical forms and registration forms, and to send the final retreat packet to the SAYF Program Manager at the end of the weekend. Lead FAN Resources – If you are a lead FAN and need access to the resources, please contact us at awesomesayfers@gmail.com