The Young Christian Workers (YCW) will be launching our celebration of 80 years in England and Wales this week, to coincide with the Feast of St John Bosco, the Patron Saint of Young People.
The YCW was originally founded in Belgium in 1925 by Fr Joseph Cardijn, who was later to be made a Cardinal for his work with the movement.
In England and Wales, the first YCW group was founded in Wigan, with Father Gerry Rimmer as the Chaplain and Patrick Keegan, a young factory worker, as President. Patrick would go on to become the first lay man to address an Ecumenical Council of the Church when the YCW addressed the Second Vatican Council.
Over the 80th year celebrations the YCW will be looking to expand it’s presence into more schools and parishes, hold training sessions for new and existing volunteers and raise money towards the running of the charity. We will keep you informed about our programme of activities, so keep an eye out for our updates.
National President, Phil Callaghan, said: “We are all really excited to celebrate 80 years of the YCW in England and Wales. We were established to train, serve and educate young people in the world of work and our work is as needed today as when we started 80 years ago.”
If anyone has any stories of their time in the YCW, please get in contact and share them. You can email any comments or enquiries to info@ycwimpact.com.
