Youth Ministry Son Seekers
Next Son Seeker Funday Sunday is 1st March (First Sunday of Lent) at 10.30 Mass – do come early to sign in.
Our Son Seeker family was set up in May 2016 in response to Pope Francis call to spread the word of God through Proclaim 15.
Our first event was a Funday Sunday on the 18th September 2016 with 56 children coming to enjoy fun and games.
Since then we have held 3 years of events.
Our aim is to grow the faith of our children and as they get older and for us to grow with them through the confirmation programme and activities aimed at young adults. We aim to do this by continuing our Fundays, parties, events and mostly by having fun.
We are currently a group of 10-15 volunteers, made up of parents, grandparents and young leaders.
We need your help with ideas and fun ways we can engage our children and help with organising and running these events. If you are interested or would like to get involved as a leader or volunteer, please email us at oliasaym@gmail.com or contact Helen Bailey on 07771 552058.
If you would like more information about the group and you and your child(ren) would like to come along and see what we are all about, please email us at oliasaym@gmail.com or just turn up to one of our events listed below. Everyone is very welcome. You can also find information about our events on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/315185465639870/
Info from SPEC
SPEC is a residential Catholic retreat centre for children and young people in the Diocese of Westminster which is based in Pinner, Middlesex
The name ‘SPEC’ stands for ‘Spiritual and Personal Encounter with Christ’.
Messages from PHASE
A beautiful flower which a lovely young man presented to many of the congregation leaving the 10.30 am Mass on Sunday morning, a lovely gesture – Happy Mother’s Day
Dates for 2019 events
Date |
Event |
Details |
| Sunday 10th March 2019 | Funday Sunday | 1st Sunday in Lent |
| Sunday 31st March 2019 | Funday Sunday | Mother’s Day & 4th Sunday of Lent |
| Sunday 16th June 2019 | Funday Sunday | Father’s Day & Trinity Sunday |
| Sunday 6th October 2019 | Funday Sunday | Grandparents Day & 28th Sunday C |
| Sunday 1st December 2019 | Funday Sunday | Advent and Memorial for Fr Michael |
All these events take place in the Parish Hall at Our Lady Immaculate & St Andrews.
All our Youth Leaders are DBS checked and many are First Aid trained.
Westminster events
Applications for the Music Ministry Scholarship. The scholarship exists as a way of developing the skills of young people in providing music in the life of their parish and the wider Church, encouraging them to grow in leadership and as people of faith – both within a parish and their everyday lives. It is for a young person (or a small group of young people) who are already fairly skilled vocally or instrumentally, and who are involved at a reasonable level of commitment in their parish or school. The workshops will be at the Diocese of Westminster’s Vaughan House, in Victoria, delivered by Joe Wells from One Hope Project. For more information and how to apply please click here or email Westminster Youth Ministry at youth@rcdow.org.uk.
· Music Ministry Scholarship 2019/20: we are now accepting applications for the fifth year of the Music Ministry Scholarship, led by Joe Wells, for young musicians in the area. Find out more about this exciting opportunity: https://dowym.com/voices/apply-now-for-the-music-ministry-scholarship-2019-20/
· The Summit in your deanery: we have booked the Summit for 13th March, 2020. Later you will receive all the information and details. In the meantime, please put this date on your agenda and make no commitments for that day if you can. I remind you briefly that this meeting is aimed at all young people between the ages of 13 and 18 and fits perfectly the kids who are preparing for confirmation or who are already confirmed.
For other initiatives or information about us, please visit our site website https://dowym.com/ and follow us if you want in our social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Download and read the 19 12 Dec updates
Update on our Ambassador programme
Autumn term 2017 was an exciting term for the Phase Ambassador programme. For those who don’t know, Ambassadors is our young leadership programme and it’s designed to train and value our fantastic young volunteers. Anyone who attends secondary school in Hitchin can be an Ambassador, but places are limited so young people have to apply quickly if they are interested.
From January to July in 2017 we ran a pilot of the programme. The full programme opened in September 2017 and our Ambassadors are now busy working away on their modules. They each have a Core module to complete first and then they can choose a new module to work on in one of the following areas: Faith Development, Leadership, Publicity, Wellbeing or Fundraising.
We have Ambassadors in key stage 3 (lower school), key stage 4 (upper school) and key stage 5 (sixth form). Each one is mentored by a Phase member of staff so that we can help them develop their skills and learn more about the types of volunteering which really interest them.
Our Ambassadors have helped at Time Trek, written blog posts, exhibited for Phase at conferences, fundraised and so much more.
If you know someone who might be interested in becoming an Ambassador, then ask them to get in touch with the office. You never know where it might lead!
Office contact: 01462 422940 / office@phase-hitchin.org
Helen Bainbridge, Schools and Youth Worker
Phase is a charity which is dependent on donations. If you would like to make a donation and help us provide support to young people, please:
- text MAKE05 £5 to 70070 to donate £5
- speak to your Church Phase Rep (Teresa Pernak or Helen Bailey)
- phone the office 01462 422940 or
- visit our website www.phase-hitchin.org and click on ‘Giving’
So what do we actually do in Phase?
As we settle into a new term I thought you might like to know a bit about our regular week, month, term and year at Phase!
The week begins with a team meeting on a Monday morning – a chance to share our weekend activities and to pray for each other in respect of any areas of concern or praise in our personal lives. We then share highlights of the previous working week, before moving on to look at the week ahead. It’s a chance to get to know what each team member is doing and to help overcome any bottlenecks in allocating ourselves between 3 Secondary and 11 Primary schools! Generally, as the Office Manager, I stay in the office, but I have been known to help out with Primary school workshops if needed…
Regular weekly commitments are based around supporting the Hitchin schools and include the 3 lunchtime (Holding Nothing Back) clubs and on-going mentoring of young people. But each week is obviously different. As I write the team have been busy delivering induction workshops in Secondary schools for Year 7, 12 & 13, and next week they begin to deliver Year 6 workshops in Primary schools.
The monthly prayer guide will show you the variety of other areas we are involved in, including supporting churches (Forum), parents (parent support group), staff (we are piloting running a morning prayer group for staff members) and young people outside of school hours (Creative Space/ Ambassadors). Please do pick up a copy from your church Phase Rep, or phone the office and we will send you a copy!
We run termly workshops for Year 6 children to help them grow emotional resilience and prepare them for transition. In Primary schools we offer Christmas & Easter workshops too to help children to understand the real meaning of both, whilst in Secondary schools we are often asked to deliver end of term assemblies.
Twice a year we organise free training for church Youth workers with a variety of bite sized 20 mins sessions to choose from. Additionally, we help plan & deliver, jointly with church Youth workers, a Time Trek holiday club for children aged 5-11yrs old every half term break.
Finally, the team often have fundraising events to support – there are larger ones like Fair in the Square last month (September), but there are also lots of other events to support; summer fete stalls run by volunteers, Fat Face or Starbuck fundraisers…
So we are always busy – I haven’t mentioned everything, but I hope you have a flavour of what we get up to!
Amanda Maylin, Phase Office Manager 01462 422940
Phase is a charity which is dependent on donations. Text MAKE05 £5 to 70070 to donate £5 and help us provide support to young people.