Visit to Loreto YCW Group

During a recent visit to Loreto Catholic Grammar School for Girls, National Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, met with 4 young people who are now part of the new YCW group there.

As part of their discussions they talked about the current YCW National Campaign on young people and mental health - MIND! The Gap - and the new Group were keen to help build upon some of the early work organised by the National Campaign Team. 

They are looking at doing their own mental health pupil survey, in order to understand the reality of young people at the school and are also helping their Chaplain, Sue Perkins, with peer-to-peer mentoring.

As well as this, the Group have exciting plans to continue supporting the schools charities and are looking to do assemblies for their peers to raise issues and awareness.

Marc Besford congratulated the new Group on their formation and said: "Loreto have had a strong YCW/IMPACT Group for many years now and it is fantastic to see another group of young leaders emerging. I just want to thank them for all they are doing and encourage them to keep working hard to be the difference!"

YCW HQ Hosts Catalonia Chaplain

Last month the YCW HQ had a visit from Fr Pepe Rodado a YCW Chaplain in Catalonia. 

Fr Rodado was visiting the country for a conference on "worker priests", a missionary initiative which sees priests take up work in a trade or profession - historically in an industrial workplace - to experience the everyday life of the working class.

Whilst here, the National Team took the opportunity to discuss and share good practice with Fr Rodado and find out what issues are important to young people in Catalonia.

Currently, the Catalonian YCW are doing a project on immigration and racism over a two year period.

Fr John Marsland, National Chaplain of the YCW, thanked Fr Rodado for taking the time to visit the HQ, saying: "It is always nice to be able to meet up and discuss our movement with our international brothers and sisters. We are always really inspired by their work. I look forward to hearing more about their projects in future." 

JUDGE Resource for "MIND! The Gap" Campaign Launched

Following on from our highly successful SEE stage survey, which gathered over 1000 responses from young people, we have put together a new resource to dig more deeply into the JUDGE aspects of the YCW method. 

Click on the image below to download the resource.

This initial resource will begin the exploration of what the survey responses make our groups think about the state of mental health amongst young people.

HEADLINES

Of 1093 young people who responded:

42.5% said they had experienced a mental health issue personally.

61.8% said they had experienced a mental health issue with their friends, family or colleagues.

53.2% said they felt listened to when they spoke about their mental health issues.

31.1% of respondents, when asked to explain their understanding of mental health, described it in purely negative terms.

53.6% of those who had direct/indirect experience of mental health issues referenced "anxiety"; 45.7% "depression"; 17.3%"pressure/stress".

It will also involve looking at the reality of what affects mental health - for good or bad. For example, good things included: Socialising, Family/Friends, Music, Encouragement and bad factors were: Stress, Exams, Loneliness, Stigma, Self-Doubt.

Finally, by judging the results through our faith, Groups will develop their understanding of how we can have a genuine Christian response to those who need our support and help.

Kate Wilkinson, National President of the YCW, said: "We were incredibly pleased with the number of responses we go to our survey, it showed us just how important this campaign is to young people. Therefore, we wanted to use these findings to inform this current JUDGE stage and really inspire our Groups to dig even deeper into the topic." 

Stockton Visit By National Team

Last month the National Team visited Stockton in the North East to talk with Fr Jeff Dodds about setting up some new groups in the 3 parishes that he is responsible for.

The meeting occurred following the fantastic example of the Billingham YCW Group and their reputation for engaging young people to See, Judge and Act as Christian leaders.

Fr Dodds has invited the National Team to come back up soon to talk at Masses in the Parishes and begin the training of adult companions who will take up the work of setting the groups up. 

Marc Besford, National Training and Development Worker, welcomed the chance to see more groups set up, saying: "It’s great to see the word spreading about the impact of the YCW on young people and their local communities. We are really keen to come back to Stockton and help in any way we can to get even more groups set up."

Report Into Young Catholics Publishes Findings

The new report, entitled ‘Complex Catholicism’, has examined the beliefs and feelings of 1,005 15-25 year-old Catholics in England and Wales.

It found that young Catholic adults go to Mass more regularly and have a better social conscience, but are also more stressed than eight years ago.

Regular mass attendance rose by 11% - increasing from 25% in 2009 to 36% in 2017.

The report comes ahead of Pope Francis’s Synod on Youth, The Faith and Vocational Discernment this October.

Other finding from the study highlight that young people tend to prioritise moral behaviour above religious observance with "being a good person", "believing in God" and "following Catholic guidelines about helping others", considered the top three factors in being Catholic.

Meanwhile, just over half (52%) of self-identifying Catholics said: "I consider myself Catholic but it’s not especially important for me to go to Mass regularly."

Of those questioned, 40%, most of whom were older, did not identify as Roman Catholic (of these, 60 per cent come from a Catholic family and 40 per cent go or went to a Catholic school).

Young Catholics in 2017 expressed stronger levels of concern about local and global issues than in 2009, particularly about terrorism and "helping others".

Female young Catholics say that they have taken more action on social issues in the past year than their male counterparts.

Despite 85% feeling happy or excited over the previous week, many also identified feeling stressed or worried over the same period, 72% over study/work, 71% about how they look and 69% about what others think of them. Female young Catholics reported feeling more stress than young male Catholics.

That said, over 8 in 10 young Catholics expressed confidence in their support networks, with 86% agreeing they feel valued by their family and 82% by their friends.

These results reinforce some of the early work being done by the YCW national action campaign on young people and mental health - called MIND! The Gap. This found that young people are expressing clear concerns about anxiety, depression and stress.

The online polling was conducted by Research Now on behalf of the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation and strategy consultancy Camino House in September-October 2017 and launched at a Cafod reception on 12 June. Figures were compared to similar research in 2009 amongst 886 15-25 year old Catholics.

YCW Meets Hartlepool Youth Coordinator

The YCW National Team recently met up with the Hartlepool Catholic Churches Youth Coordinator, Ric Slater, to discuss the work of the YCW and how it could be further developed across the North East.

Currently, Hartlepool has the highest rate of 18-24 year olds unemployed in the Tees Valley - at 8.6% - and many more young people are suffering from low pay and insecure employment.

At the core of the YCW is a commitment to promoting the dignity of work and especially for younger people who are frequently discriminated against and exploited. 

In fact, these issues were reflected in a document released by the Pre-Synodal Meeting of Young People, presented in the Vatican last month following a week-long meeting opened in the presence of Pope Francis. 

It discussed the pressures of work and prospects for the future, saying:

In some parts of the world, the only way to attain a secure future is to receive higher education or work excessively. While this is a commonly held standard, it is not always possible due to a variety of circumstances young people find themselves in. This idea is a prevalent notion and has consequently affected our understanding of work.

Despite this reality, young people wish to affirm the inherent dignity of work. Sometimes, we end up discarding our dreams. We are too afraid, and some of us have stopped dreaming. This is seen in the many socio-economic pressures that can severely drain the sense of hope among young people. At times, we have not even had the opportunities to keep dreaming.

For this reason, young people seek to engage with and address the social justice issues of our time. We seek the opportunity to work towards building a better world.