THE TERRITORIAL YOUNG ADULT RESEARCH PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
In October 2007, The Canada and Bermuda Territory began a research project with the hopes of gaining an understanding of the rates and causes of young adult attrition across the Territory. The project was designed to meet the following goals: 1. 2. 3. 4.
to investigate the rates of attrition among Salvationists in the 16-35 age bracket to compare these rates with those of other denominations to determine if there are discernible patterns or causes of this attrition. to recommend action that can be taken to address the issue.
A four part approach was adopted in order to achieve these goals. 1. A literature review of recent research on trends in young adult church affiliation. 2. A ministry-unit survey, which attempted to paint a statistical picture of patterns of attrition on the grassroots level. 3. A set of three young adult surveys, aimed at gauging the opinions of young adults regarding their experiences in the Army (one for those attending an Army corps; one for former Army attenders who now attend another church; one for former Army attenders who do not attend any church 4. A series of interviews and focus groups with young adults, practitioners, and stakeholders across the Territory. What follows is a complete summary of the research project, presented in a series of four reports, as follows.
Report 1: Literature Review…………………………………………………... Page 2 Report 2: Demographic Trends in Attrition and Retention…………………… Page 15 Report 3: Young Adult Opinion Research…………………………………….
Page 46
Report 4: Interview Themes…………………………………………………... Page 87 Recommendations……………………………………………………………..
Page 106
Shorter versions of the reports on demographic trends and opinion research have been produced, and are available upon request from the Corps Ministries Department.