Accompanying Parents of Young Children: From Baptism to First Eucharist

Accompanying Parents of Young Children is designed to assist parishes in developing a plan and learning the processes and skills to accompany parents from Baptism to First Eucharist using an intergenerational mentoring approach which connects parents of young children with an adult from the parish community for support, encouragement, and faith sharing.

This program of training and program development is led by Ron DeVries and Anna Radcliffe who lead the Generation Spark Project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Generation Spark partners with church leaders to provide a research-based action plan that builds successful, authentic, and safe intergenerational mentoring relationships that spark intimacy with Jesus, a sense of mission, and meaningful connection.

FIVE-SESSION ONLINE PROGRAM

Find webinar replays and presentation downloads below:

WEBINAR 1

Understanding Today's Parents

Presenters: Anna Radcliff and Jill Benson
GENERATION SPARK

This session focuses on generational perspectives of parents of young children (in their later 20s, 30s, and early 40s); and how to work effectively with them. 

WEBINAR 2

Forming Intergenerational Relationships of Mentoring and Accompaniment

This session focuses on the skills and approaches needed for building intergenerational relationships between older members of the community (who will be mentors) and younger members of the community (parents of young children).

WEBINAR 3

Developing a Practical Approach to Mentoring

This session focuses on how to organize a mentoring program in a parish: recruiting mentors and equipping mentors with the skills for working with young parents.

WEBINAR 4

Engaging in Storytelling

This session focuses on the importance of storytelling and the practices necessary for engaging mentors and young parents in storytelling. It will also explore how storytelling can influence the culture of the whole parish.

WEBINAR 5

Designing Parent and Family Faith Formation – with Mentoring - from Baptism to First Eucharist

This session focuses on the inclusion of mentoring in the planning of programming for parents and families as they journey from Baptism to First Eucharist.