New England Yearly Meetings annual Sessions has had a Junior Yearly Meeting program for
over seventy five years.  The JYM Elementary retreat program grew out of a leading by Kevin Lee in 1989 as a way to nurture and sustain the experience of a spiritual community among Quaker children that begins each August at our annual Sessions.

As we begin our third decade of retreat ministry for Quaker children, well over 4000 children will have journeyed with us also as we head into the future.  We are blessed.

 We are also pleased to say that some of our previous retreat attendees are now returning as young adult staff persons, which further strengthens our sense and experience of spiritual community.

Last year we experienced another milestone; for the first time, we had a child attend a JYM Elementary Retreat whose parent also came as a child! (Good thing I'm not getting older though...right!)