Over the past year the YCW has continued with its mission to train young leaders; serving, educating and representing other young people in their places of work or study and in their local communities by living out the Gospel through their actions.
We have had a busy year visiting and training groups all over the country, especially in our target regions of the North West and North East. The number of new groups being formed and developed, alongside our existing groups, have been undertaking some inspirational work such as: tackling loneliness, empowering women and girls – a project in partnership with UKYOUTH - tackling environmental issues, refugee sponsorship, foodbank appeals, mental health awareness and supporting homelessness services.
At National Council in March, our National President Kate Wilkinson came to the end of her mandate meaning we would need to elect a new President. There was only one nomination - our current National Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford. The vote to elect Marc was unanimous and he took office officially in July to allow for a period of transition into the role. We want to thank Kate again for all the work she has done as National President and her many years as part of the YCW Movement. Ben Sinclair remained as National Secretary and in addition to this; Sean Smith has stayed on as National Treasurer. We hope you keep them all in your prayers.
This past year has also seen a renewed effort to recruit and train adult companions and chaplains to accompany our groups. Our training events included discussions on: the Youth Synod in Rome and the Papal Exhortation Christus Vivit – led by Bishop Ralph Heskett, designate Bishop for Youth – and one exploring how we can better engage with our local communities – led by John Battle. These events have also been opportunities for the sharing good practices by introducing new adult companions and chaplains to more experienced ones.
We have continued with our leadership programme called “Be the Difference!” this year. The purpose of this programme is to give young people a definitive pathway to becoming a YCW leader. The programme is designed to help young people develop leadership qualities and skills through a programme of 12 units, each with 3 stages. The National Team will arrange for a Recognition Ceremony, either locally or regionally, for groups of new leaders. We have been working to get funding for this programme, so that we can roll it out across all the Groups currently up and running.
The HQ has hosted several NEC and Trustee meetings over the year, allowing the National Team the time to plan and prepare the activities of the year and discuss the future vision of the YCW and IMPACT! in England and Wales. Following the National Council, work has also been done to expand the NEC and fill some of the vacancies on it. We are really pleased to say that we have had lots of interest in joining the NEC and have managed to fill these roles with enthusiastic young leaders from across the movement. We have also hosted a number of existing and new groups at HQ and will look to continue bringing young people together from different areas in order to continue the solidarity of the YCW and IMPACT! in our country.
One of our longer running projects has been to use the garden space around our HQ in Trafford Park to offer a space to local workers and parishioners to use. From our national campaign on young people and mental health, we found that increasingly mental health is closely linked to the whole question of the environment and communities we inhabit, a point that Pope Francis repeatedly makes in Laudato Si. We have managed to make considerable progress on the garden and are following this up with some grant applications to make the full vision of the project into a reality.
Throughout the year we have continued our close involvement with other projects and organisations across England and Wales and within the Diocese of Salford, where our HQ is situated. We have also expanded our work to other Dioceses outside of Salford this past year, including: Leeds Diocese, where we sit on their Justice and Peace Commission youth project SPARK, the Diocese of Westminster, where we are in discussion about a youth leadership programme through Caritas Westminster, Hexham and Newcastle, Shrewsbury and Lancaster.
The YCW remains a member of the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation (CYMFed) and still attend its board meetings. This year also saw the return of the Flame Youth Congress, the YCW brought a 100 strong contingent of young people down to Wembley Arena for the event. We continued our link with St Antony’s Centre by celebrating their 40th year in operation, supporting their Remembrance Sunday service and attending the Trafford Park Christmas Carol Service. The Centre frequently helps us to host events and support our work in many other ways.
2019 also included another set of awards from the charity called ‘Million Minutes’, where the YCW sponsors an award named in honour of our founder, Joseph Cardijn. There were 2 winners this year of the Cardijn award: St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Newham who successfully managed to convince London City Airport through song to raise the wages of 100 workers and Daisy Alston-Horne - an 18-years-old from Prior Park College who dedicates herself to the dignity of other students - and primary children - acting as a peer listener, as a member of the student council and by engaging in the local Youth Parliament. She led a ‘Bus Campaign’ fighting for raise the age of child bus fares to 18 - ensuring that all can afford to travel, especially for work, and that the rights of her fellow students are recognised. Dawn Wilkinson - who is one of our YCW Adult Companions - won a very well deserved award for her commitment to young people and other IMPACT! Groups, such as Guardian Angels won commendations for their work.
We still remain a member of the ICYCW and are the coordinating Movement for the European Commission. This year, this meant that we organised the REM (Rencontre Européen Militant) in Portugal, which is a meeting of young YCW leaders across Europe, and was attended by members of the International Secretariat of the International Coordination of the Young Christian Workers (ICYCW). During this meeting, young people were able to share their experiences of working life, for example: what motivates them and what makes them happy. We also discussed our concerns about the future of work, since we are facing a new revolution in many forms of work. With the growth of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, we have reached a point of unprecedented challenge.
Our National President, Marc Besford, attended a Conference on the Common Good in the Digital Age on behalf of the ICYCW and personally met Pope Francis again! Another member of our National Team, Eamonn O’Brien, attended the Centenary Conference of the International Labour Organisation with the ICYCW and was chosen to the address the main Conference Hall. This was the first time in its history that the ICYCW had been able to address the ILO and talk about our mission to the delegates.
So that we can keep more of our former members and supporters updated about our work, we have maintained our monthly e-newsletter and added a hard copy of our newsletter for those who are not online. Our recent Christmas appeal to former members and supporters raised nearly £600 and was a great help to our work. We also held a Christmas social for the YCW movement, which was well attended and gave us the opportunity to thank many people in person for their support.
2019 was the year in which the Trade Union Congress dedicated it to focusing on young workers. In this spirit, we engaged more with some of our local Unions and joined them on a number of actions. This included the protests around ASDA undermining workers’ contracts, contributing ideas to a Youth Charter and promoting Catholic Social Teaching on the importance of Trade Unions in our resources.
We hope that the young people continue their great work and also our adult companions and chaplains keep supporting them through their faith journey as Cardijn once said “everything by the young people but nothing without the chaplain”.
