The Youth Pastoral Delegate

• The Youth Pastoral Delegate (YPD) is the Provincial’s delegate for coordinating all the youth ministry of the province and he works in agreement with the Provincial.
• He ensures a comprehensive pastoral operation in the Province and pays attention to all the Dimensions of youth ministry.
• He is available full-time for the provincial pastoral animation.
• He is a member of the provincial council, where he represents youth ministry issues and concerns.

Responsibilities 

• The Youth Pastoral Delegate (YPD)  helps the Provincial and his council in the formulation of the SEPP and other common pastoral directives and guidelines;
• He co-ordinates with a team spirit the functioning of the provincial youth ministry team and helps each member to carry out his task;
• He supports the local communities in their pastoral planning, implementation and assessment, attentive to the development of the four Dimensions of the SEPP in their various settings;
• He keeps in contact with the practitioners to guide their activities according to the unified plan of the SEPP;
• He directs the joint community projects proposed in the SEPP;
• He ensures the implementation of an integrated educative-pastoral formation plan for the confreres, the lay collaborators and the young animators;
• He keeps in close contact with members of the Salesian Family who are working in the Province, with the local church, and with the Central Department.

 

The Youth Pastoral Team of the Province

• The provincial youth pastoral team collaborates directly with the youth pastoral delegate in his tasks: i.e., planning, animating, co-ordinating and evaluating the youth ministry in the Province, according to the directives of the Provincial and the provincial SEPP.
• Its main purpose is to ensure the integrity of the pastoral activity (the co-ordinated presence of the four Dimensions) and the convergence of the various activities. For this reason it is important that in the team there are people with special competence in the four Dimensions of youth ministry.
• It is important that those responsible in the Province for the Missions and for Social Communications also take part in the work of the team.

 

Responsibilities

• To collaborate with the Delegate in his responsibilities.
• To guide the communities towards an interdisciplinary view of problems and a combined effort to resolve them;
• To foster the presence and the interconnection of the different aspects of the SEPP in the various activities of the sectors of the Province.
• To draw a specific plan of work (e.g. for the year) based on the SEPP, following the priorities laid down by the provincial.

 

Inter-provincial Animation and Coordination

At the service of the pastoral planning and animation of a group of Provinces, there are organisations for contacts and for co-ordination: inter-provincial teams for Youth Ministry, national or regional youth ministry delegations, national centres for youth ministry etc.  It is part of the co-ordinating role that the provincial Delegates for Youth Ministry in the various Provinces of a region or group of Provinces (National or Regional Delegation or Inter-provincial Team of Youth Ministry) meet regularly

• to reflect together on the youth situation and the challenges present in the context of the Provinces with a view to formulating  joint criteria and guidelines for the animation of the country or region;

• to co-ordinate joint collaboration between the Provinces, on common issues, such as the formation of educators and animators etc.;
• to foster the sharing of experiences, aids, initiatives and projects;
• to provide a type of combined and unified presence and action in the Church and in the national and regional territory.

 

Animation and Coordination at the Local Level

• Rector is the local youth pastoral delegate. It is the responsibility of the local Salesian community, especially the Rector and his council, to initiate pastoral animation of the settings and activities through which the mission is carried out in a particular place.
• As the animating nucleus of the EPC, the local Salesian community will make sure that in every activity and setting the integrity and the unity of the Salesian pastoral ministry is achieved.
• In the pastoral animation of a setting, the Salesian community gathers together the lay people, especially the members of EPCC, and involves them, in a co-responsible way, in the youth ministry of the house and the locality.
• In every EPC there is a youth ministry co-ordinator with a team. This co-ordinator with the team plans, organises, co-ordinates and stimulates the pastoral activity of the setting according to the objectives proposed in the local SEPP, in close contact with the Rector.

 

In practice the local community carries out the following functions:

• fosters and directs the participation of all the EPC members, in the formulation, implementation and assessment of the local SEPP;
• develops the local SEPP through specific programmes according to the different types of pastoral activity in the setting, and sees to their implementation;
• fosters the co-ordination and integration of the different pastoral activities, ensuring their complementary nature and their orientation towards education to the faith;
• promotes and develops initiatives for the formation of practitioners in accordance with the guidelines of the provincial plan;
• ensures the connection and the collaboration of the EPC with the pastoral strategy of the local church and with other educative bodies in the area.

 

Province Youth Director

 

• The Province Youth Director, a full-timer coordinating the Youth work in the Province and responsible for the Salesian Youth Movement, will assist the networking of the Youth Centres.

 

• The Province Youth Director is the one who enables and ensures the forming and animating of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM). To this end he assists in networking all our youth centres.

 

• He encourages and enables formation of SHGs in our Youth Centres and will study and propose various Government Policies and Corporate Schemes that can benefit them monetarily and assist them to avail of the same.

 

• He is responsible for preparing youth animators for the province and preparing materials for their animation.

 

• He links the Youth Centres to the Province Centres of Animation like, Vazhikatti and others to avail of all possible schemes for growth.

 

• He is responsible for studying the possibility of opening more Youth Centres in our presences (including our parish settings).

 

Youth Centres / Oratories

The Director

 

• He is the person directly responsible for the formation of the young and the effective running of the Youth Centre/Oratory.

 

• He has the role of animating and coordinating the various persons that work in the Youth Centre/Oratory and involves them in the decision-making process

 

• At the beginning of each year, the Director along with the Educative Pastoral Community will draw up the Educative Pastoral Plan and prepare the programme / calendar for the whole year.

 

• The Director has to be a full-timer without other major responsibilities that are incompatible with this office.

 

• The Director should be a trained and qualified youth worker

 

• The Director shall be obliged to maintain a record of the working, financial statement and the inventory of the Youth Centre and he shall hand it in person to the next Director on his transfer.

 

• Any disciplinary decision will be taken by the Director, in consultation with the Rector and the House Council.

 

• He should see that Periodical Formation is given to the Lay Animators in various fields such as: counselling, social analysis, social psychology, political awareness, media education, etc. He should organize courses for them at the local level and help them to participate in other programmes which are available.

 

• He should organize the Satellite Youth Groups and animate both the Salesian Youth Groups and other Non-Salesian Youth Groups in the area.

 

• Since young people are left with the great task of taking up life’s basic choice, proper guidance should be given to them by the Director. Career guidance and job placement should also be provided for them.

 

• The Directors of the Youth Centres, convened by the Province Youth Director, will meet normally at the beginning of the academic year to find out ways and means of fostering Inter Youth Centre activities like: social issues, animation programmes, debates, retreats, cultural festivals, tournaments, etc.