ValLimar Jansen uses her high energy to pump up the 20,000 teens who gathered in Indianapolis of the the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 17-19, 2011. As keynote presenter Jansen inspired the teens through song.
This February, teens from across the diocese are asked to “Turn the Page and Live HISstory” at the annual diocesan youth convention. The Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries hopes to provide participants with a healthy, positive experience of Christian community, and help them know and live their Catholic faith more fully.
The convention itself is turning the page and starting a new chapter in its 60-year history. The format underwent a major overhaul based on evaluations taken at last year’s event.
In the spring of 2011, the Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, which sponsors the convention, looked at the structure and content of the event. Input from youth and adults in 25 different parishes, surveys of people who don’t usually attend, and research of 10 different conferences across the country helped shape the new format. The conclusion was young people want to meet more people, see more teen witness, and have more active and interactive learning sessions.
A video on the Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries website explains the top 10 changes to the 2012 convention, which include youth being assigned to small groups of 10 that will meet four times during the weekend for discussion periods. Breakouts will be shortened to 45 minutes with a one-hour mega session. The mega session will break down the audience by ages and gender to provide targeted programming.
As a reply to a request for more prayer opportunities, Saturday afternoon will offer a chance to take time to pray in a variety of forms. A teaching Mass dealing with the changes of Roman Missal 3 will also take place, as will catechesis on adoration.
The Saturday night cotillion and festival will return with a few changes. The dance is now casual dress and a bigger and better expo picks up where the festival left off, adding service and creativity projects to the games and information booths that have proven popular.
The awards presentation on Sunday will be reduced, with only the Manus Christi being presented to honor outstanding high school seniors in recognition of their leadership, involvement, faith witness and moral character. Several other awards were given last September at the new “Witness the Spirit” event.
“I think everybody at 60 needs a facelift,” joked Kathryn M. Goller about the changes. As director of the Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, she values the input of convention-goers.
“I think we have really been attentive in the last few years to evaluations of the convention event in particular, but also as part of that evaluation process our department did in the spring of 2010. We learned a lot about what people are looking for. It has really helped us to constantly press the pause button and reexamine what we’re doing and why we’re doing it to make sure we’re still on track. It has helped us to make much more intentional decisions about what we offer for young people.”
All during the remodeling process the staff asked, “If the convention didn’t exist and had to be built from scratch, what would it look like?” “That really forced us to be able, in a healthy way, to let go of some of the past traditions,” Goller said. “The beauty of the 60 years of past conventions is it gives us such a rich tradition to draw from and to build on. At the same time, sometimes past history can put you in too tight a box. We wanted to use this milestone year in a unique way to say 60 years of tradition have been healthy and positive, and given what we know about teenagers today, what we know about the Church today, what we know about the world today, if we were starting from scratch what would it look like? We gave ourselves permission to not let our history completely define us.”
The goal was not to fix something that was broken, but rather to build up and tweak a good product to strengthen something that was already positive and good.
“Hopefully the new format will give all young people an easier time finding a place where they fit in,” Goller said.
The 60th annual diocesan youth convention with the theme “Turn the Page, Live HISstory” will take place the weekend of Feb. 17-19, with keynoter Carrie Ford.
For more information visit www.dobyouth.com.
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