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What IS the Accompaniment Project?
The Accompaniment Project is a grant-funded initiative of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) that seeks to guide parishes through reimagining how to accompany all young people encountering Christ and growing in discipleship. It is not a program, but rather, it is an experimental approach to youth ministry that helps parishes meet the needs of the young people in their communities. The Holy Rood Collaborative was one of only 43 parishes from across the country that was selected to be part of the Accompaniment Project. Check out the press release [HERE].
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What will we be doing as part of this project?As part of the Northeast Cohort, we will work with an NFCYM-appointed coach to train an Accompaniment Steering Committee who will lead the work of the project for a period of three years. In that time, the parish leaders hope to educate the adults in their communities on what it means to accompany young people in their faith walk, as well as to provide them with the practical skills they need to do so. In this effort, these parishes will be testing a new model of ministering with young people, which focuses on the development of a faith community companions for the youth.
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Where are we now?
We have completed Step One: Focus on the Needs of the Young People (Why). As part of this phase surveys were conducted with key demographics in the parish with the aim of identifying the most pressing needs of the young people in our parishes. Based on the over 150 response we received the Steering Committee assessed the most pressing needs among the collaborative's young people to be: school/grades, relationships (non-romantic and romantic), and time-management.Step Two is Setting the Vision (What). The committee will return to Connecticut to meet with other parishes in our cohort and receive training on how to go about envisioning how our parishes can address these needs from a place of faith.
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