‘YOUTH
ALIVE’ WORKSHOP FOR THE YOUTH OF
ST.
XAVIER’S PARISH, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad.
The Youth
Alive was a workshop conducted by Rev Fr. John Barretto, the
former Youth Director of the Archdiocese of Mumbai. The workshop was conducted
on 18th September 2016, Sunday at the Parish hall in St Xavier’s
college Parish Church, Navrangpura. There were 70 youth participants from our parish.
The event commenced
at 9:15am by welcoming Fr Baretto. After the prayer we had our first
icebreaking session. It was helpful as we got a chance to interact with new
people. It was a good start as the participants were energized with this
activity. As it is said, a good start paves the way to success.
The next
activity comprised of working in pairs over a set of questions. It was actually
a pressure task as Father created an environment of competition and difficulty.
It was quite similar to the tasks we face in normal day-to-day life. We get
engulfed in the competition and hence fail to see the minute details.
The next activity
that followed was a group activity. Each group of 8-9 members was given a
different task to work upon. It was either a skit or a design or a poster. All
the groups came up with very innovative ideas. There were groups that spoke on
The Illuminati, Gender Equality, Women in Sports, New Machine invented, etc. It
was a wonderful way to nurture the skills required to work in a group of new
people with varying ages. We learnt to accept other’s ideas, give our own
opinion, see the potential and talent of the other, realize our own plus points
and most importantly Team work.
We had a short
tea break before the commencement of the presentations. Then we had the
presentations and then a talk on increasing our positive attributes, reducing
our negatives and achieving our Needs. Fr. John very well categorized all the
different attributes linked with our lives. The main point highlighted and
focused here was “Belongingness”. Many members join the youth but fail to
continue because they feel the others don’t want them, they don’t feel the
sense of belongingness and hence discontinue.
After the lunch
break, the session commenced at 2pm. It started with few games such as bursting
the balloon, passing the polo etc. This lightened the atmosphere and drove away
our sleep. Then we had an intense session where father spoke on Fellowship,
Formation and Service as the primary objectives of a parish youth group. He
asked to note activities for each of the following. The groups came up with
unique ideas like Food contests, Worship Band, Visit to the sick and elderly,
helping the others in studies, sports, music etc. Father also mentioned that
the activity doesn’t end here. We need to make a schedule for three months or
more having an activity each for fellowship, formation and service.
After this each
group was given an event to plan. All the groups worked intently on the event
given, seeing to every detail. This activity made us re-think the different
aspects that need to be looked into before, after and during the event. An
important point given by father was – the need to put tasks done by individuals
on paper. Everybody gets a feeling of belongingness. There were various other
aspects of organizing an event that were highlighted.
The workshop
ended with a game followed by Holy Eucharistic which was celebrated by Fr. John
and Fr. Jose.
The workshop was
a great success as it helped us to achieve our objectives of mobilizing the
youth and getting all to work as a group. It helped us identify the talent possessed
by others in our youth group. We also learnt how to manage and coordinate with
new members in our group. Altogether it was an effective event.
Report Prepared
by
Betsy Fernandes,
The Youth
Co-coordinator of St. Xavier’s Parish.
