THE P RTAL
July 2015
Page 23
Catholics in Business
Australia
- Youth Program
Fr James Grant tells us about an exciting new project in Australia
O
ne of the great challenges facing the Australian Church is how to connect with younger Australians.
In Recent years Catholics have been notoriously poor at harnessing such connections, so whilst World
Youth Day may be an International success, Australian parishes are substantially empty of 18-22 year olds.
This lack of connectedness does require a
new way of thinking and one in which we
stop asking, “Why don’t young people come
to mass?” and start asking, “What are we
going to do for them?”
Out of this new thinking, Fr James Grant
of Catholics In Business has established the
Youth Academy, a project designed to target
disengaged 18-22 year old Australians. The
Academy is designed to “fire-up” young
people who are not law breakers in any way,
but may have fallen into a pattern of
disconnection, sleeping during the
day, with long hours on the internet at
night.
The program runs for a month
and combines a morning developing
work skills, CVs, public speaking and
mock job interviews. Afternoons
focus on getting the body moving,
motivational speakers and visits
to differing businesses with a view
to understanding aspects of the
Brendan Le, Project Leader
business with talks on possible job
opportunities.
Importantly, the Academy also treats
Western Culture and the Catholic
Church as important cultural and
spiritual pillars for understanding
ourselves and flourishing in the
world of work. Significantly 8 out
of 10 participants have never visited
a Cathedral and rather than “mentally
resisting” such activities are shocked
to discover that “Harry Potter”
style architecture is not a creation
of J K Rowling!
Naturally, the program is unable
to guarantee all participants an
immediate future job, but it does
guarantee a strong commitment
to young people and a continuing
message that the Catholic Church
has lots to offer!
You can find out more about
the initiative at:
www.thecyaproject.org
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