KYPT - Communication

Faith and Friendship

(Click here for a printable version of the entire Faith and Friendships unit)

There are two things that we have not yet covered. They are fairly basic things that affect your life everyday. But they are also extremely powerful. I’m talking about faith and friendships. Imagine what your life would be like without them. Instead of talking to you about that, I am going to rely on the poetry of one remarkable young lady to do the talking. You’ll find excerpts from one of her poems below.

Access Your Heart
Please include us.
It hurts to be excluded.
A quick hi and a hug are not enough.
We need real inclusion.
When will you understand?

We are all in need of a church which welcomes and
accepts us for who we are.
We are made in God’s image.
When you forget to include us you are forgetting to
include God.

Access is more than ramps and accessible
bathrooms.
The hearts of everyone need to be open and
welcoming.

Open your heart.
And let us in.

As Sarah so eloquently states, everybody needs to be loved and included. Take a moment to think about your friendships, and about the church or youth groups of which you are a part (if any). Have you inadvertently been excluding people with disabilities from these areas of your life? It may not even be something of which you are conscious, but something as small, but significant, as passing someone by without saying hello, or offering a sincere smile.

As we go through this module we will look at both faith and friendships and the importance of both in the lives of people who have disabilities. Please understand as we continue that none of the text, activities, or documents you see are based on any certain religion. The purpose here is to talk about faith in general, and not to promote any particular religion or spiritual beliefs.

Introduction

Spirituality

Friendships

Strategies

When you have reviewed these links and completed the activities, ask your teacher to give you access to the quiz on this unit!