So you take your youth on a trip to the biggest conference you can find, they get extremely fired up, and they back to their parish (and hopefully a youth group) and find that the excitement just is not there.  Any youth volunteer that has brought youth to a conference, retreat, or camp knows a little of what I am talking about. The youth may start to complain about why their parish may or may not do certain things, but ultimately what it comes down to is that they will be tempted to forget and push aside any bit of thanksgiving or challenge they received from the retreat because it just simply seems easier to them to go back to the way things were.

I have heard and tried several simple one time ideas and I will give you some of those later.  I have put together a four part series to help break down many of the essential things to think about for each trip to best follow-up and equip the youth that attended.  These are things that should be incorporated in to any retreat, not just thrown in and decided later.  Plan these in to each and every trip.  Our complete series will be released over this next week.

Relationships During the Trip

I realize this isn’t follow-up but using the time during the retreat the best that you can will set you up later for the follow-up.  Retreats are an incredible gift because it may be the only chance you and the volunteers get to spend more than 1-3 hours at a time with a youth.

Bring Volunteers

Retreats are a chance for the youth to gain trust in you and be able to point their experience at the retreat and connect it with the church and you as the representative of the church.  You may have 20 youth on the retreat, but find time to at least check up on every single one of them.  You and the otherwill be the physical constant when they come home.  Yes, the constant is really Jesus in the Eucharist, the Church, Sacraments, Mary, etc.  but when they lose sight of that, you and the other youth and volunteers that were there will be the ones that ‘understand.’

For retreats, my goal would be to have a volunteer for every 6-8 youth.  Many places require this anyway.

Train Volunteers

The volunteers should be an extension of you.  I have found that volunteers like to be told what is expected of them because then they know if they are doing everything they should be doing.  If you are not able to have a meeting with all of the volunteers before the retreat, then that should be one of the first you do when you get there.  Share with them your vision of the before, during, and after of the retreat.  Expect them to be a part of the follow-up and this entire process.

Always Be Prepping

When talking with the youth even at the beginning of the retreat, try to probe a bit about the life outside of the retreat. At the beginning talk with them about how things are going in their life.  Walk with them on the road that they may be going.  Then towards the end of the retreat you can start asking about some changes they would like to see made in their own lives, in the families and friends, and in the parish.  Start asking them what the parish could do to help them walk this way of the cross.

In a nutshell you and the volunteers will be the rocks that they see, the people that went through and experienced what they did and were able to hold on to it and continue to love and serve God.

Check back for part two – Act on Unsafe Situations