Especially for Youth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Especially For Youth (often abbreviated as EFY) is a week long youth-oriented seminar focused on fellowship and teaching the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Attendance is open to all youth aged 14 to 18. Sessions, which are primarily held in the United States, follow a common curriculum created by the Church. Sessions take place during the summer months in order to coincide with the summer break practiced by many American schools. The program is led by Latter-day Saint young adults who serve as counselors in exchange for a stipend. Speakers are selected from the Church's Institute and Seminary programs. All sessions are organized and managed out of the EFY headquarters in Provo, Utah.

EFY states that its mission is to help participants "come unto Christ".^[1]

[edit] History of EFY

According to EFY's Participant Journal the program was created by Ronald C. Hills, in 1976. when 172 youth and 15 counselors met for the first session of the summer program. Jeffrey R. Holland, now of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was one of the banquet speakers at the founding session. The next year, attendance had risen to 863 youth. Currently, EFY's summer program includes sessions which are held at various locations throughout the United States and Canada. As of 2005, the total number of participants who have attended EFY over the years is 409,484. ^[2]

In 2006, EFY expanded outside of North America for the first time, with sessions in England and Germany.^[3]

In 2007 EFY held it's session at Exeter University in the United Kingdom.