YouthLink moves toward the future

It was a special moment for us as young adults, realizing that we are slowly, but surely, taking on more responsibilities towards manifesting the Auroville ideals. What a precious gift it is, to hear the stories of hard work from our parents and grandparents who initiated this visionary project and who took on this tremendous commitment. Auroville’s 50th Anniversary events have symbolized a transition between generations, and a point for inner reflection within us all. With excitement and an eagerness in our hearts, the question lingers – what will our offering be for the next 50 years?

YouthLink is a platform for the integration of young adults in Auroville. It was founded through a community process known as ‘the Auroville Retreat’ in March 2015, where the community defined goals for youth related to housing, education and employment. Since then, various young adults have gathered in temporary spaces in SAIIER, Bharat Nivas, Auromode, and now in the Progress community to work on finding solutions for the young adults in Auroville. Our team today includes 12 members, including Aurovilians, Newcomers and bioregional and international volunteers.

The Auroville Charter is at the centre of YouthLink’s vision

YouthLink’s vision and scope of work has revealed itself more clearly over the last three years. YouthLink has placed the Auroville Charter at the centre of its vision, highlighting particularly the aspects of embracing the spirit of ‘a youth that never ages,’ and creating a ‘bridge between the past and the future.’ YouthLInk aims to provide a safe, creative platform for young adults who seek to gather and find solutions to their own needs. It also invites older mentors or younger adolescents to participate as well. The mixing of generations is crucial to ensure that we are able to continue learning from our community’s pioneers, and that we continue to inform ourselves of the emerging needs of the younger generations as well.

Comm4unity

Comm4unity is YouthLink’s theme for unending education. YouthLink has explored the theme of community building and collective intelligence over the last years. This has become a favorite theme for most of our work regarding the integration of young adults in Auroville. Comm4unity umbrellas weekend workshops or longer 2-6 week courses are designed according to the interests and learning needs of the young adults in Auroville, and thus will continue to evolve as the township transforms.

Another unique aspect is that these courses include a real effort to remain integral in their scope, including the development of every aspect of the being. The courses usually include a balance between introspective activities such as Awareness Through the Body, a bit of theory on sustainable lifestyle practices, and a lot of time for hands-on work to practically engage in the transformation of matter.

Once a Comm4unity course is completed, YouthLink offers the graduates several options. If the youth like it, we train them to become future facilitators in the area of their choice. If a dream project emerges, YouthLink will also commit to creating support structures for its incubation. And for those who feel the need for recognition to travel and teach, a Gaia Education certification is available.

The Hive

The Hive project is YouthLink’s central hub and was envisioned following the Auroville Retreat process in 2015. The primary focus of the Hive is to create a space for education, projects, events and networking led by young adults. The project includes space for a YouthLink Service Office to provide information and a help desk on topics related to apprenticeships, education, employment, and community building. The project also includes space for a multifunctional hall where young adults will be able to design and implement resources to meet their own higher education needs. The Hive will also include some space for a co-working area, to support youth in designing projects / activities / units. etc., along with a kitchen to provide some basic food, a workshop for hands-on learning activities and caretaker accommodation for security and management of the building.

By the youth – for the youth

This project truly hopes to be ‘by the youth, for the youth’, including all those who want to participate in the spirit of ‘a youth that never ages’. Therefore the project includes several roles for young adults: as part of a core project team; supported by young adults as working group advisory members; and younger youth as links to high schools and the Youth Centre. The project has engaged youth in all possible community processes over the last years – through the the 50th Planning Process, and through several large workshops engaging Aurovilian, Newcomer, and bioregional youth in the design of this space. The construction of this space has also involved young architects, and will employ young contractors. Later, the management of this space will continue to train and involve young adults as managers and executives. The project also includes older mentors.

The ‘Golden Jubilee’ Project

The Hive project has been named as the ‘Golden Jubilee Project’ for Auroville’s 50th Anniversary celebrations by Dr. Karan Singh, following one of the initial presentations to the Governing Board and International Advisory Council in 2015. Together with many elders and youth, we gathered at an auspicious hour on the 26th February, 2018, for a small ceremony to bless the project.

The event included a puja where everyone attending could offer some sacred wood to a fire, calling on the energies of the planets and the universe at large. We were honoured by the presence and chanting of Dr. Karan Singh who unveiled the Hive foundation stone for the building. We were given a beautiful hive-shaped dream-catcher, a painting from a pioneer, honey from an expert bee-keeper, sacred water, and framed pictures of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. But above all, we were given the opportunity to build a space for the dreams of young adults to manifest.

Joy of Impermanence

This is YouthLink’s community incubator. The idea is that any community that embodies the ideals of impermanence would be willing either to shift to another home to accommodate another group, or put their homes on wheels so they could be moved, or build organically to allow their homes to biodegrade back to the soil.

Anitya is the first community to be built in the spirit of ‘joy of impermanence.’ The Anitya community is located on a small plot of land between Edyanchavady, Aurodam and Sacred Groves. The project has been lent a yurt from Ruslan, and a tetrahedron from Peter, and is building a Earthbag Tsatsa house. The community will finally include about 30 people and uses the symbol of the banyan tree to represent different commitments. The core members who hold greatest responsibility represent the ‘trunk’, those that branch out will be those who are undergoing training, and the ‘birds’ are volunteers or friends who fly in and out to cross-pollinate within Auroville and the world. Currently the project has seven young adults as core team members.

The Anitya team welcomed the community to an open house on the 1st March 2018. The event included the planting of an indigenous tree, sharing of information and food. It was a precious moment to connect to the spirit of impermanence and share dreams for this temporary community.

Conclusions

This was the beginning of opening new doors for us as youth, and for Auroville as a community. The next 50 years call us, as we seek to blossom, to transform ourselves, as we dream of a collective spirit to emerge and envelope this world.