As is traditional for Youth Ministry, on the first weekend of November, volunteers of Youth Ministry were invited to gather together at Savio House, to celebrate and evaluate the past year in Youth Ministry by Sue McDonald.

YAT (Youth Advisory Team), BOVA/BAT (Bosco Volunteer Action/BOVA Animation Team), DBYN (Don Bosco Youth Net), Phoenix, Faith in Action, Greenbelt and the Easter retreat were all represented at the recent meeting.

There have been a few reshuffles in teams over the past few months with people moving over to other teams or working on other projects outside of Youth Ministry, however all teams were well represented and there was a great enthusiasm amongst the volunteers.

All the teams were asked to report on the challenges that they have faced and the tasks that they are looking forward to in the next 12 months.

 

YAT is a team set up to advise the Provincial, Fr Martin Coyle, either on topics that the Provincial suggests, or through issues that, they believe, need to be looked at. YAT have been looking at methods of getting new volunteers as well as keeping the current and past volunteers engaged with the Salesian works.

BOVA/BAT have had 14 volunteers working overseas, giving 65 months of their time to overseas volunteering. Approximately every 3 or 4 months, BOVA hold a training weekend at Savio House, to prepare prospective BOVA Volunteers. BOVA are also looking to find ways of better integrating themselves into Salesian Youth Ministry, as well as trying to encourage the members of BAT to engage in other Youth Ministry projects.

DBYN is formed of 13 countries, of which Great Britain is a founding member. DBYN hold seminars and training courses of Intercultural learning, Social Entrepreneurship and Training for Trainers. Next year Savio House will be hosting a "Training for Trainers" course. DBYN have been looking into the way they advertise their projects. Also they are working on continued development after a participant went to Spain for a training course and is now over in Barcelona teaching English.

Since Phoenix began, it has been on the up and up. Next year, the Phoenix camps will hopefully run for three weeks rather than the current two; they're also looking into incorporating a 'Mamma Margaret' figure that would look after the small practicalities throughout the running of the camps.

'Faith in Action' was piloted for the first time in 2014 and invited young people to explore Social Justice Issues as well as their own faith. After this year, Faith in Action is expanding to a second week, with one week being spent at Savio and the other down in Westminster.

'Greenbelt' is a Catholic festival that takes place at the end of August, typically over the bank holiday weekend. Salesians have been going to Greenbelt for a number of years, and every year more and more people are involved in attending. The Salesians ran 4 sessions where they gave input to 2 youth groups and 2 adult groups. The sessions were enjoyed by both those that led them and those that attended.

Young Adults Easter has also been going on for some time, recently moving to Savio House from Brettargh Holt. The event was a great opportunity to be gathered in prayer and to share in community through the time of the Passion. This year, as well as the Young Adults Easter retreat, Savio House will also be running a Youth Easter for young people that have recently been to Savio House.

There was also a meeting for the people that weren't included in any of the other groups. This group met to discuss what was good with the Youth Ministry events that they participated in as well as what they had learned in those events. They then worked together to see how this could develop the work of the youth ministry.

After all of these meetings and a rest, the Provincial, Fr Martin Coyle, gave us information about the discernment process by the Kinharvie institute and the 4 main projects. He also gave information about the upcoming Extraordinary visitation from the Regional (Fr. Tadeusz Rozmus) in November 2015. The Provincial concluded by recapping the upcoming events of the Bi-Centenary.

The weekend concluded with Mass and lunch before a small group headed down to London for the Chaplains meeting.