Overview for Parents and Leaders

Purpose of Personal Progress

Young Women Personal Progress is an achievement program designed to help young women:

Strengthen their testimonies of Jesus Christ.
Strengthen both their present and future families.
Prepare to be worthy to make and keep sacred temple covenants.
Prepare for their future roles and responsibilities.

Young women work with their parents, Young Women leaders, and other exemplary women to set and accomplish goals based on the eight Young Women values. Personal Progress can help parents and leaders improve their relationship with young women as they work together.

Responsibilities of Parents and Young Women Leaders

Introduce the Program

Young Women leaders meet with each young woman who enters the Young Women program and her parents. A member of the young woman’s class presidency could also attend. The leaders present the young woman with a Young Women Personal Progress book, a Personal Progress journal, and the Young Women torch pendant. They explain the program to her and encourage parents to work with their daughter in selecting and completing Personal Progress experiences and projects. The leaders should also invite parents to all special events in which their daughter participates.

Ensure Adequate Support

A young woman needs support and regular encouragement in completing Personal Progress. This may come from parents, leaders, other adults, and older young women who have completed Personal Progress. If the young woman has limited support at home to assist her in completing Personal Progress, another sister may be invited to serve as a mentor and help her, in counsel with priesthood leaders. This adult sister may approve value experiences and projects and sign the young woman’s Personal Progress book when they are completed. Another young woman who has completed Personal Progress may also be invited to give help and encouragement.

Record and Recognize Progress

Parents and leaders provide regular opportunities for young women to report their progress. When a young woman reports regularly, she is able to make an accounting of her efforts and share what she has learned and how her testimony has been strengthened. Parents and leaders recognize her accomplishments, confirm her understanding and application of gospel principles, and offer encouragement for continued progress. These interactions will help develop caring relationships.

Responsibilities of Priesthood Leaders

When a young woman completes the entire Personal Progress program, the bishop interviews her, using the standards in For the Strength of Youth as a guide. He verifies her attendance at sacrament meeting, her participation in seminary, and her reading of the Book of Mormon. This can be part of her annual or six-month interview. The bishop determines the worthiness of the young woman to receive the Young Womanhood Recognition and signs her Personal Progress book to acknowledge her completion of the necessary requirements. He may present her with the Young Womanhood Recognition in a sacrament meeting or other meeting.

A young woman’s success in Personal Progress may also be acknowledged as she receives her Beehive, Mia Maid, and Laurel certificates as she moves from class to class.

Members of the bishopric may use their interviews with young women to recognize and encourage each young woman’s progress. The Young Women Personal Progress Tracking Sheet for Leaders, maintained by the Young Women presidency, may be helpful in assisting bishopric members. Stake presidents should regularly ask bishops about the welfare and progress of the young women in their wards.

Guidelines

The goals and requirements of the program are outlined in the front of this book. The following additional guidelines may be helpful for leaders.

Value Experiences

A young woman may work on the values in any order.
With the exception of the value of virtue, young women are encouraged to complete the required value experiences before doing the project for that value.

Value Projects

A value project is intended to help a young woman apply what she has learned from the value experiences.
A young woman should spend a minimum of ten hours for each value project. The same ten hours may not count for more than one value project.
Young women may work together on projects. However, a young woman must spend a minimum of ten hours of her own time if she is using that project to fulfill her own Personal Progress requirement.
With the prior approval of parents or Young Women leaders, the good things young women are doing at home, Church, school, seminary, and in the community may fulfill the requirements of Personal Progress.

Completing Personal Progress

When a young woman completes the Personal Progress requirements before leaving Young Women, she should be invited to help other young women who are still working on Personal Progress. She should also be encouraged to earn an Honor Bee or begin the program again.
If a young woman has not completed all of the Personal Progress requirements before leaving Young Women, she should be encouraged to continue working toward receiving the Young Womanhood Recognition. Mothers, leaders, and other exemplary women may be invited to support her in accomplishing this.

Tracking and Pacing

The Personal Progress Record Sheet, found on page 77 of this book, summarizes each young woman’s work in Personal Progress.
A Young Women Personal Progress Tracking Sheet for Leaders is also available as a separate sheet to assist leaders in tracking the progress of each young woman (36655). It can be used to assist both Young Women and priesthood leaders in working with and recognizing each young woman.
Young women may work at their own pace in the Personal Progress program; however, it is recommended that a young woman complete at least one value experience each month and one value project every six months (two a year). If she starts working when she enters Young Women at age 12 and continues at this suggested pace, she will finish when she is 16. She will then have two years to earn an Honor Bee or begin the program again as suggested on page 83.

Recognizing Individual Progress

When a young woman completes the experiences and projects for each value, she receives an emblem (36654) and the scripture ribbon associated with that value. She places the emblem on the Personal Progress Value Achievement page of her book (page 78). She uses the ribbon as a bookmark in her scriptures. This recognition of her progress can be awarded in a Young Women meeting.
Annually, at Young Women in Excellence, young women should be recognized for their accomplishments.
A young woman’s success in Personal Progress may also be acknowledged as she receives her Beehive, Mia Maid, and Laurel certificates as she moves from class to class. These certificates (Beehive, 08563; Mia Maid, 08565; Laurel, 08564) are awarded under the direction of the bishop. They acknowledge the young woman’s movement from one age-group to another.

Young Womanhood Recognition

When a young woman completes her work in all eight values and has been interviewed by the bishop, she receives the Young Womanhood Recognition. This recognition consists of a certificate (36651) and a medallion in either gold or silver (gold, 08602; silver, 08603). A member of the bishopric may present the Young Womanhood Recognition in a sacrament meeting.
After completing the Young Womanhood Recognition, a young woman may continue to progress by earning an Honor Bee charm (gold, 08562; silver, 08578; see page 83). This recognition of her progress can be awarded in a Young Women meeting.
Awards and certificates may be obtained through a Church distribution center using ward funds, at no cost to the young women or their parents.

Personal Progress Requirements for Leaders

Leaders are encouraged to work on Personal Progress along with the young women. Those who participate in the Personal Progress program themselves understand the program better and set a favorable example for the young women to follow. They may earn the Young Womanhood Recognition after they:

Serve for a total of one year as a Young Women leader.
Complete the required value experiences in each of the eight values.
Complete three value projects, including the project for virtue.

Participation of Mothers

Mothers are welcome to participate with young women in earning the Young Womanhood Recognition. Mothers work from their own Personal Progress book and may earn the recognition along with their daughter. It is recommended that a daughter earn her recognition before or along with her mother.

Mothers may complete the same requirements as their daughters, including:

Attend sacrament meeting regularly (where possible).
Live the standards in For the Strength of Youth.
Complete the value experiences and value project for each of the eight values.
Keep a personal journal.
Read the Book of Mormon regularly.
Record her testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.

Mothers may select different options for the elective value experiences and the value projects from their daughters. The experiences and projects may be signed and dated by their daughter, their spouse, a Young Women leader, or another adult. The bishop verifies that the requirements have been completed. Recognition and the purchase of recognition materials should be coordinated with Young Women leaders and the bishopric.

Personal Progress Requirements for Others Who Desire to Work on the Program

Other women who desire to participate in and complete Personal Progress may do so by completing the same requirements as young women and by assisting a young woman with a portion of her Personal Progress. (See requirements for mothers on page 92.)

Incorporating Personal Progress in Sunday Lessons and at Mutual

Working together on a Personal Progress experience as part of a Sunday lesson can give leaders and young women an opportunity to discuss the principles being taught and their application in the lives of young women. References to Personal Progress can be found in Young Women curriculum materials.

Personal Progress activities may also be part of Mutual. For example, all young women could assist with one young woman’s value project. Working together on a project can help motivate young women to continue progressing. Such group activities should be planned prayerfully and selectively to ensure that the Personal Progress program remains personal for each young woman.

Adapting to Individual and Local Needs

Value experiences and value projects may be adapted according to personal or local circumstances, interests, and needs with prior approval of parents and leaders. When making any changes or exceptions for one person, leaders should consider the effect those changes may have on other young women. After careful consideration by parents and leaders, adaptations may be made to meet the needs of young women with disabilities or educational limitations, to meet cultural or individual needs, or to allow young women who are not members to participate.

If a young woman joins the Church or becomes active in Young Women after age 16, her requirements for completing the Personal Progress program are to:

Attend sacrament meeting regularly (where possible).
Live the standards in For the Strength of Youth.
Complete the required value experiences in each of the eight values. (She need not complete the elective experiences.)
Complete a value project in each of the eight values.
Attend seminary (where available).
Read the Book of Mormon regularly.
Record her testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.

These requirements may also apply to young women in other circumstances as determined by local Young Women leaders.