The activities that make up the life of a neighbourhood.
The work of the Institute takes shape through a handful of recurring activities. Each is, on its own, modest but held together over time, they begin to weave a pattern of community life.
Children's Classes
For children from the age of five, regular classes for the development of moral and spiritual qualities — generosity, honesty, courtesy, truthfulness — drawn from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Classes are held wherever children and a teacher can gather: a home, a park, a community room.
More on children's classes →Junior Youth Groups
For young people between roughly eleven and fourteen — an age of remarkable potential and equally remarkable pressure. Groups meet weekly or in camps with an animator a few years their senior, studying texts that explore questions of character, service, and purpose, and undertaking projects in their own neighbourhood.
More on junior youth →Study Circles
For youth and adults — small groups of friends who study the sequence of institute courses together, week by week or in camps, applying what they study through acts of service in their own neighbourhood. The circle is the workshop in which capacity is built.
More on study circles →Devotional Gatherings
Open and informal — prayers, readings, and conversation among neighbours. A devotional is often the doorway through which a wider circle of friends becomes involved, and it remains, in every flourishing neighbourhood, a steady source of spirit.
Periods of intense activity — punctuating the year.
Alongside the weekly rhythm of activities, the Institute organizes camps, festivals, and conferences — short, intense gatherings that bring together friends from across a neighbourhood, a cluster, or the province. They are not standalone events but hinges in the year, designed to deepen friendships, to accelerate the institute process, and to send everyone home with fresh determination.
Read more about institute camps →