YCW NEC Meets to Plan Year Ahead

This past weekend the YCW NEC met at our Trafford Park HQ to discuss our plans for the upcoming year.

The main focus was on our current National Campaign called MIND! The Gap - which is focusing on the issue of young people and mental health. The NEC looked over our YCW Survey that has been produced to collect the thoughts and experiences of young people as part of our SEE stage in the campaign. 

Further to this, there was discussion about building a national campaign team of young members, who could come together to develop and and drive forward the ideas around MIND! The Gap. These members would be key links to our regional groups across England and Wales and ensure that we get as much involvement as possible.

Following the SEE stage will be the JUDGE and ACT stages, so work has already started to timeline these over the next year, as well as organising events and training throughout this period.

On a separate topic, the NEC discussed some upcoming European and International YCW events that National Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, will be leading on. Marc is currently coordinating responses from movements across Europe to feed into a discussion at the International HQ next month. 

Finally, there were preliminary discussions about the YCW National Council for 2018 - expected to be in late April. The National Council draws together members, companions and national leaders from across the country to provide training, plan for the future, as well as the official aspects of the Council itself - approving the accounts and resolutions put before the members.

SEE Stage of National Campaign Launched

The YCW has today launched our national consultation on Young People and Mental Health.

We are looking for young people across England and Wales to share their thoughts about the current state of mental health in our country, especially the reality for young people.

An overwhelming amount of our members have expressed their deep concerns about the current help available to young people with mental health problems, as well as the stigma attached to it.

Because of this concern the YCW has launched a National Action Campaign on mental health among young people, called MIND! The Gap.

The first stage being run is focused around exploring the issue more deeply and finding out the opinions and experiences of young people. A key part of this is a short survey covering a variety of aspects around mental health, which can be found on our website – www.ycwimpact.com/national-campaign-resources or directly at https://tinyurl.com/ycw-mental-health-survey.   

Marc Besford, the National Training and Development Worker of the YCW, said: “This campaign is carried out on a national basis so that we can, as a Movement of young people, join together to make a real difference to the lives of our peers.

We want them to know that their voice matters and hope they take part in this important survey. Once we have the information together we can then move forward with the campaign.”

MIND! The Gap Resource Available

To kick-start our new National Campaign, called MIND! The Gap, there is a new resource available for YCW and IMPACT groups to use in order to get have candid look at the mental well-being of young people and the support available to them.

The resources gives an overview of the reasons for the campaign, provides helpful tips on how to use the campaign and offers a series of enquiries for Groups to explore amongst themselves. This work will form part of the first stage known as the SEE part of the YCW process.

The resource is FREE to download at http://www.ycwimpact.com/national-campaign-resources/ where other fantastic resources can be found.

YCW Launches New National Campaign

Members of both YCW and Impact groups across England and Wales have expressed their deep concerns about the current help available to young people with mental health problems. In addition to this, there are concerns about the growing stigma attached to mental health problems specifically in schools and colleges and work places.

In response, the YCW National Team wants to look at this issue much more deeply and find out the opinions and experiences of young people by running an action campaign called Mind! The Gap.

An action campaign brings together all members of YCW and Impact! to address a topic of current interest and relevance to the lives of young people. It is a process of study, reflection and action which helps us to realise that we have a great deal to offer to others and power within us to change things for the better.

An Action Campaign is carried out on a national basis so that we can as a Movement join together, along with our friends and contacts, to make a difference on a wider scale.

The campaign follows the See – Judge – Act approach which every YCW and Impact group uses at their regular meetings, just on a wider scale.

The first stage of the campaign will be about hearing and then sharing the results of our enquiries. Details will be out soon regarding how you can share your thoughts and experiences with us, so please keep an eye out. The more we hear from you, the more fruitful we will all find the next stages of our campaign.

A Christmas Message From the YCW National Team

As we draw towards the end of 2017 we look back upon all that we have achieved. As a movement we can be content in the knowledge that more young people across England and Wales are growing in Christian leadership and 'being the difference' in their homes, places of work and local communities.

However we must also recognise that this year has been a difficult time for many. Young workers across the country are still faced with hardship due to unemployment, low pay and precarious working conditions. Further afield from home we see worrying evidence of political unrest and war where the Christian values of love, peace and the common good are ignored in place of ideology, power and greed.

However, the season of Christmas provides us with an opportunity to dispel some of this darkness by focusing our hearts and minds upon the hope that the birth of the Prince of Peace delivers. Pope Francis in his Christmas Day message of 2014 reminded us;

"Where God is born, hope is born. He brings hope. Where God is born, peace is born. And where peace is born, there is no longer  room for hatred and for war."

We pray that in this season of Christmas the birth of the Christ child will enlighten our hearts so that we may all better live out His call to be missionary disciples to one another.

The YCW National Team wish you a very happy and holy Christmas.

The headquarters of the YCW will close on Friday 22nd December and will reopen on Tuesday 2nd January.

YCW Review of the Year

Over the past year the YCW has continued with it's mission to train young leaders; serving, educating and representing other young people in their places of work or study and in their local communities by living out the Gospel through their actions.

We have had a busy year visiting and training groups all over the country, especially in our target regions of the North West and North East. A key part of this has been the identification and training of adult companions and chaplains to accompany the new groups emerging.

In July, a national event was held in Manchester for the younger members of the movement who are part of "Impact!" groups and this proved to be a great opportunity for young members to meet one another, work together and share their ideas.

All this hard work has led to the movement being comprised of the largest number of active groups in the last decade.

The new headquarters has helped with our work enormously, and is embedding itself within the local area with a growing YCW group of its own. There are further plans in the pipeline to open up the grounds for local workers and offer more opportunities for groups to visit and get training.

The HQ has hosted several NEC and Trustee meetings over the year, allowing the National Team the time to plan and prepare the activities of the year and discuss the future vision of the YCW and IMPACT in England and Wales.

We also benefited from being able to host a range of international visitors and specialists, to help develop our own skills and links with the wider movement of the YCW. From this we have generated our own leadership training plan and work more strategically with our Groups across the country.

In addition, we have attended the International Council of the YCW in Seoul, South Korea, taking an active role in the discussions and being asked to help lead the European sphere. One recent example of this was our National Worker, Marc Besford, attending the COMECE European Bishops Social Affairs Commission in Brussels. Training has also been given in Scotland to the movement there.

Further international training that we have undertaken has took our team to Israel and Palestine, in order to assist them in creation of YCW movements in their countries.

Midway through the year we experienced a handover of President, following a well attended National Council in April. Kate Wilkinson took over from Phil Callaghan, who had been President for the last 6 years. Phil oversaw the move up to Trafford Park in Greater Manchester and the emergence of new groups in the North.

Throughout the year we have continued our close involvement with other projects and organisations within England and Wales. The YCW remains a member of the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation (CYMFed) and took a large group to participate in the Flame 2017 event at Wembley Arena in London in March.

We also partnered with Million Minutes to sponsor an award named in honour of our founder, Joseph Cardijn. We've had several groups and members win recognition for their wonderful work and are very proud to see them achieve such success.

Perhaps our biggest event of the year was the celebration of our 80th Anniversary in England and Wales. Nearly 200 YCW Members, past and present, came together at Salford Cathedral for Mass, presided over by Rt. Rev. John Arnold, Bishop of Salford. The Mass saw many of the current YCW and IMPACT members participate as welcomers, readers, in the offertory, altar servers and in the music group. Afterwards there was a wonderful celebration, where members reconnected and shared memories of their time in the YCW. 

As we look towards 2018, we will be focusing on our upcoming campaign on mental health and young people, called "MIND! The Gap". Please keep an eye out for this over the next year and help support this incredibly important issue.