Salvation Army video series to offer help for young adults

By: Brad Rowland

Young adults face unique challenges in today's landscape and, to assist them in meeting them, The Salvation Army's Southern Territorial Youth Department is set to launch an online video series. The "Youth Down South: Young Adult Edition" series debuted in January 2020 and, every month, a new topic of study and conversation will be on display.

"Every video that we drop will come with a resource that we will put on Ministry Toolkit, our website and other places to make the information convenient to access," said Jovanie Smith, the host of the series and the Southern Territory's young adult and mission deployment coordinator. "There are tangible ways that this resource can be used in the field, and we think it can and will be very useful."

The first video outlines the focus and vision of the series, for 2020 and beyond. From there, practical topics will be addressed, from financial management and resume-building to summer jobs, goal-setting and mental health.

Other segments will focus specifically on college students and individuals in that age range, including a focus on final exam preparation, student loan management and what to do after graduation.

"We really want to resource the field on a number of topics that are practical," Smith said. "We want it to be geared specifically to young adults to help with things that are directly relevant to interests of people in that age group."

Beyond their function as carriers of information that is relevant and practical, the videos will seek to to sustain an ongoing conversation with young adults and let them know they are being considered and that the issues they are battling can be overcome.

"I'm really excited about the videos and the impact they might have," said Smith. "It doesn't always happen that young adults are specifically the focus of something like this, and we think it can speak to some real-life questions that people might be facing."