Hello all,
Archdiocese of Los Angeles preferred requirements for youth minister is Basic formation (40 hours) plus special youth oriented classes from archdiocese (20 hours). (If in Los Angeles I would highly suggest to take the specialization classes. They were so informative).
Our parish youth group is called Cristo Joven.
The primary focus of the youth group is “community of faith”. As such we do everything together.
Weekly regular meeting includes scripture, topics, ice breakers, and activities.
Weekly Activity night we play sports or help around church.
We go on regular Pro-life walks and pray at abortion clinics.
We work/fundraise a lot. The youth actually love working together. As a group was made our parish over 10k in 2008. Very poor church so all volunteer. No stipend either.
We do fun stuff like Magic Mountain, Youth Day, hiking, and camping.
The kids are from all sorts of back grounds. We have a number of non-Catholics and one Jew. Many of the youth also participate in Confirmation and in mass.
Youth group and Confirmation are two different entities in my parish. Others combine them so they can pay one person to run it all. We have nuns run Religious education.
We are working right now on the confirmation retreat, Via Crusis (Way of the cross we perform on the streets around neighborhood on God Friday), and sports tournament (we invite close by parishes for some friendly competition).
We have a website
www.CristoJoven.net
God Bless,
John Anthony