Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Resource Friends

  • If you would like to request support from a Resource Friend fill out the inquiry form.
  • If you are interested in serving as a Resource Friend fill out the application form.
  • Resource Friends help our community thrive by providing support in specific areas of concern in our monthly and quarterly meetings. These are Friends who offer a diversity of gifts and extensive “how-to” knowledge.
  • Communities which utilize Resource Friends are invited to reimburse them with a financial honorarium for their time and services. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting funds the training, staff time, and other administrative costs that bring you Resource Friends, and we ask that meetings chip in the small amount of money to cover the cost of honoraria for Resource Friends. If a meeting or other Quaker community cannot afford an honorarium, please be in touch with us by emailing Zachary T. Dutton, zdutton@pym.org. There are funds available to cover the honorarium as well, in these cases. View our honorarium guide here.

Practice Areas

The Resource Friends program is organized into practice areas that correspond to our five Threads.

Active Practice Areas:

Forthcoming Practice Areas:

How to become and remain a Resource Friend, the process: 

  • Fill out the application form.
  • Zachary Dutton or another member of staff will be in touch with you.
  • Staff vet candidates and make a recommendation to the Program Committee or another governance body delegated the care of a particular practice area of the Resource Friends Program.
  • We look for experience, recommendations, and other types of credentials. We do not prioritize formal degrees, preferring to evaluate the whole person.
  • The recommendation pertains to whether the applicant is suitable to become a Resource Friend.
  • The Program Committee or other governance body approves the recommendation.
  • Then the Resource Friend forwards Zachary or another member of staff their bio and headshot, which is posted to the PYM Website.
  • To remain a Resource Friend, you need merely to attend a training once a year. Resource Friends may accept an honorarium from the yearly meeting for their participation in the training commensurate with our rate for similar types of service (approximately 200 dollars).
  • Resource Friends can expect a low frequency of inquiries from meetings or other local Quaker communities, once or twice per year at the most.
  • Resource Friends negotiation the amount of the honorarium that they will be paid directly with the local Quaker community or meeting; there are funds available to help cover honoraria for communities that cannot afford it. Review the honorarium guide for specifics.