This past week our National President Marc Besford joined St Edward’s YCW Group for their first virtual meeting since lockdown began.
A crucial element of the YCW Movement is the chance to come together - away from the stresses and strains of work, studies and everyday life - and be able to reflect. Ordinarily, this would be something done in person but due to the restrictions following the coronvirus lockdown many groups have had to embrace new technology to do so.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways in which this can be done online and with a bit of training. In fact, our National Team are well used to this type of work because they use it for a lot of European and International YCW events and discussions. This means we are able to help organise and train any young leaders or adult companions in how to sort it out. We also have put in place some essential safeguarding procedures to ensure everyone who participates can do so safely.
The Group from St Edward’s in Lees decided they would continue to explore the topic of the environment and how the lockdown had presented opportunities to think differently about how we go about daily life in a more ecologically sound way. For example, many people have been working from home and not had to drive to work, others have had to find alternatives to plane travel and consider virtual ways of organising conferences.
All of this has meant our environment and air quality has improved.
Therefore, one keep topic for discussion was could more be done, and how might the Group help kickstart that in their local parish and wider community? This will form part of the SEE, JUDGE and ACT process as they continue to meet virtually for the time being.
National President Marc Besford said: “This was a great show of how our Movement can embrace the new technology available and continue to operate effectively. St Edward’s is only one of a number of Groups who are continuing to meet and I hope to be able to keep visiting as many of them as I can, without having to get caught in the rush hour traffic!
We have had a number of groups getting in touch asking for us to host group meetings. So if you or your group are interested in connecting virtually please get in touch and we can arrange this for you.”
