Resources

For Parish Youth Groups

Parish Youth Groups come and go as the young people who travel through them get older and move on, and the adult leaders sometimes find they are unable to provide the on-going commitment. Essential to every youth group are a meeting place, adults to supervise, and a small group of young people who will often bring with them great amounts of energy, enthusiasm and ideas of their own. The shape of every youth group will be different depending upon the gifts of the people comprising it, but we hope that in this section you will find some resources to step out with confidence and courage. Please feel free to contact us should you require some advice or support. On a national level, a new body exists to co-ordinate youth ministry across the country called CYMFed, Catholic Youth Ministry Federation. Recently (2011), research supported by CYMFed was published identifying key characteristics of young people and their needs. It is worth checking out Mapping the Terrain. It is worth also checking out the Y Report (2002) which tracks the shape of youth ministry in this country.

 

A good place to start is www.catholicyouthwork.com and their newly released resource: Three: One resource. Its sections include material and resources to support a whole programme of sessions for young people on Exploring our Faith, Prayer, and Taking a Stand. You can sign up to Catholic Youth Work as they have some forums where you can access various resources including Youtube clips for prayers. You might also like to explore the resources section of Revealed Online. From Scripture to music, and finance to health and safety, this website presents a wealth of practical mateiral to enrich your ministry with young people. It is also worth keeping an eye on the Cafod website for resources relating to their the current campaigns. You may also find support for your youth group from the Young Christian Workers (Impact Group). There are Impact Groups in Preston, Lancaster and Fleetwood at this present time. Youth Work Magazine’s website has some ideas, resources and guidance for youth ministry too.

You might also like to look up www.funandgames.org or www.pastor2youth.com or www.youthworker.org.uk for ideas of activities/games for small groups. If you are using films and media for your youth group sharing times, it might be worth exploring the following: www.wingclips.com where you can find film clips on virtually every subject by theme, category or Scripture. You can also find discussion questions and reviews of current films on http://www.usccb.org/movies/ and www.reelissues.org.uk for film reviews and discussion questions for small group sharing.

For Confirmation Groups

For Confirmation Groups, you might like to make use of a course put together by Hannah Zafar, Nicola Couttie, Anna Cowell, Fr Chris Angel (Leeds Diocese) and Fr Philip Conner (Lancaster Diocese). This course – besides preparing teenagers for the sacrament of Confirmation – is a great tool of evangelisation and provides introductory notes to each of the eight sessions, demonstrations, worksheets and structures for prayer time: Introduction + 1 The Spirit of Love + 2 The Spirit of Mercy (with Reconciliation) + 3 The Spirit of Freedom + 4 The Spirit of Faith + 5 The Spirit of Power + 6 The Spirit of Life + 7 The Spirit of Witness + 8 The Spirit of Prayer. Another excellent resource is produced by Catholic Evangelisation Services, ‘Plugged In’ – a six-session resource for teenagers which can be used in youth groups, Confirmation groups, schools and chaplaincies: includes 6 sessions on DVD containing several powerful elements including personal witness, young people’s questions and thoughts, scripture dramatisation, ‘Grill the Priest’ questions and answers, music and images.

For Children’s Groups

You may find resources to assist you in your Sunday liturgies in the Roots resources.

Teenage Friendly Resources

A good place to start is Lifeteen. This website has up-to-date and attractive multi-media presentations. www.chastity.com Includes a very good question and answer section on relationships, love, sex and chastity, and other resources promoting a culture of life. You can also check out questions on love and relationships. The Youth 2000 website has some good tips on prayer, how to go to confession, how to work out your vocation, and the meaning of love. Salvationhistory.com includes the opportunity of studying the Bible in great depth as a distance learning project.  Massive amount of free MP3 available on all area of Bible study. A great resource for reference and for study groups is the new youth catechism, Youcat. Please also check out the prayer page of our website for links and ways of developing personal prayer.

For Students and Young Adults

Xt3.com - Christ in the third millennium – is a Catholic Social Network (like Facebook, but for Catholics). Youngandcatholic is a very good blog. Lifeteen is always up to date with articles, videos, podcasts, media wonders and all things Catholic. To keep up to speed with news in the church, there is a daily Vatican-based website run by journalists called www.zenit.org

Information on Vocations

If you are exploring the idea of a vocation to the priesthood or to religious life, the national office for vocations is a good place to start. You can also check out our diocesan blog and contact Fr Andrew Allman (picture to the left) for further details or if you are exploring the idea of a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. There are some good guidelines also on www.free2become.org if you are discerning where God may be calling you to.