Strong Catholic Families> A Process to Help Raise Strong Children

How Does It Work?

Diocesan Planning

Over the last several years parishes in the diocese have gone through a planning process that has identified a number of priorities.  A large majority of parishes identified family as a strong need.  Family is one of the three priorities identified in the diocesan Pastoral Plan for the diocese.  And data from some recent studies bears this out.

The Research

Recently a major research projectout of the University of North Carolina focused on the faith and spirituality of high school youth.   The results are published in the book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Youth.  The researchers found… “that the single most important social influence on the religious and spiritual lives of adolescents is their parents.” (p.261)  And again, “Parents for whom religious faith is quite important are thus likely to be raising teenagers for whom faith is quite important , while parents whose faith is not important ate likely to be raising teenagers whose faith is also not important.” (p. 57)

Anyone who works closely with children, youth and families is well aware of the impact that parents have on the faith of their children.  This finding certainly reinforces the family priority in the Diocesan Pastoral Plan.

Strong Catholic Families is a process that was developed by the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) to respond to the research.   The staff of NFCYM  has developed a workshop and resources that can be presented to parent groups in parishes.  The goal of the workshop would be to motivate parishes and parents to take action in order to help families nurture the faith of their children more effectively.  

Strong Catholic Families In Our Diocese

Fifteen people from our diocese have been trained to make the workshop and resources available to parishes if and when they choose to participate.  It is our hope that parishes that wish to schedule the Strong Catholic Families presentation want more than a one night stand.   Diocesan staff and trained presenters are available to  parishes willing to commit to adopting the Strong Catholic Families process of engaging, empowering and partnering with parents and families to discover ways to nurture the faith of their children.

Expectations of Parishes:

• Determine the best time and place to gather parents.   (more than one if necessary)

• Contact Diocesan Parish Services Team to schedule a parent session.  (email: dbax@diojeffcity.org)

• Appoint a committee to work with input received from parents.

• Commit to the follow up process either as described in the Host Parish Instruction packet or as designed by the committee.

• Stay in contact with the Diocesan Services Team for resources and planning.

Expectations of the Diocesan Services Team

• Provide a trained presenter to offer workshop at parent gathering(s); Parish Services Team will provide resources for parents and support for parish planning

• Personal follow up from Team within one month of Parent Session (scheduled at the same time parish schedules the Parent Session)

• Minimum of 1 hour, can be adjusted to meet needs of parish

• All parish staff strongly encouraged to be part of this meeting as well.

• Able to provide several follow up workshops or to help with planning as parish sees fit.

• Commitment to ongoing process, dialogue and sharing of best practices and parent resources.

What's Next? (click here)

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