The dream is to cultivate a place on the internet where people who follow Jesus can meet and share creativity and inspiration. It's a contagious place filled with an abundance of hope, color and wonder!
It's About Jesus
First and foremost, it's about Jesus, the One who makes our heart beat. The Bible says: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." That's the foundation. We believe that Jesus, as part of the Holy Trinity, is the Great Creator.
And It's About People
Well of course it is! And we sure weren't meant to be alone. We need community. We need to share and encourage and spread the Good News. United Young as a website provides the place and means to connect.
And It's About Culture
Art, words, music, photography, film... United Young loves it! We see creativity as a great gift. Put in the perspective of the Great Creator, we aim to create, collect and enjoy that which drips in creativity. Everyday. In full color.
Super Secret Test Version
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A Little History (In Little Type)
Back in the late '90s a kid named Jonathan Tamboer got the dream to create that which is described above. He spent way too much time learning HTML 3.2 and set out on "The Great UY Building Adventure" in the following decade. (Actually it wasn't called United Young yet, it was Christian Youth.) In pursuit of this dream he learned programming and applied to the Royal Art Academy hoping to obtain serious graphic & typographic design skills. In the meantime the project evolved from a worldwide English speaking online community (selected by the Webby Awards as Official Honoree) to a hyper-local Dutch speaking social network (used as Jonathan's successful graduation project at the academy).
In the beginning of 2009 the desire to broaden the reach of United Young was rekindled, and work began full-steam to make the project bilingual (Dutch & English) and to recode and redesign the system from the ground up. By God's good grace Jonathan hopes that this will be finished in time for the project's 10 year anniversary. That about sums up our little history of the pursuit to carve out a perfect niche in the booming micro-blogging, social network, cross-over, what-have-you internet space.