Youth are actively involved across the country, serving the poor in their communities. Some highlights from the year include:
In London, Ontario, the St. Louise de Marillac Youth Conference spent a day in early November in the “Last Post” area of the Woodland Cemetery in London where impoverished soldiers are buried. The youth cleaned the grave sites of the soldiers in preparation for Remembrance Day as a way to honour and thank those who sacrificed so much and died destitute and without the means for a decent burial.
In and around Calgary, Alberta, there is lots of activity around youth in high schools and parishes. Bishop McNally High School Conference serves 500 – 600 of Calgary’s homeless in the downtown core every Sunday, with youth volunteers from across the city. While the – Our Lady of the Snows Youth Conference experienced poverty first hand through “Take the Plunge” where they spent the day doing workshops and experienced the poverty on the streets of Calgary.
The Archangels Youth Conference in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario once again lead the “Pencil Case Project”, collecting new and used school supplies in July for SSVP conferences around the world.
Youth are involved across the country in many amazing activities. I encourage you to share information about them with me throughout the year at national@ssvp.ca.
The National Youth Committee, working with the National Education/Formation Committee, is introducing a series of resources for conferences and councils to assist in the attraction, development and retention of youth and young adult members. As the rule book states, every conference has a requirement to work towards finding youth and young adult members. These resources are to help conferences to do that.
As part of this plan, the following resources are available:
The Youth Advisor
A guide for council presidents on how to find a youth advisor and approach them on starting a conference (available here);
The Youth Handbook:
- Guideline – How to start a youth conference
- Guideline – Youth executive team
- Guideline – Monthly attendance
- Guideline – Adult conferences
- Guideline – Connecting with sites
- Guideline – Approaching schools and churches
- Reporting Guidelines on Young People
- FAQ
For any questions on these resources, please contact the National Youth Rep at youth-jeunes@ssvp.ca
EMMANUEL BAILLY BURSARY
The Emmanuel Bailly Scholarship is an initiative of the National Council of Canada of the SSVP. It was created to reward young Vincentians who are combining studies and volunteer work. In addition to attending school and often working part time, young Vincentians find time and energy to help the less privileged of their community. The National Council of Canada wishes to reward them for their exceptional contribution, by offering a bursary of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) in Canadian currency and a merit certificate.
The scholarship is awarded to a Vincentian student who clearly stood out during the year. The bursary is to help the recipient pursue his/her studies and fulfill professional ambitions.
For information and application, please download the PDF document: APPLICATION