This is something that I think gets overlooked too often.  Your number one priority when you get home is to help any youth who may be in danger when they get home.  This can be looked at in two ways, those whose physical lives are not safe and those whose spiritual lives are not safe.  Obviously these are connected in many ways but let me separate them for the purpose of this post.

Those whose physical lives are not safe

If you find youth that are living in abusive homes, are suicidal, addicted to drugs, or maybe have an eating disorder, these are a few of the things you will want to act on immediately.  You do what you have to do as soon as possible after the retreat is over with.  We will not focus on how to handle these situations now, that will be for another post, but talk to your pastor about it right away.  Hopefully, if you discovered these things during the trip, you were able to give a heads up to the youth that you are going to act on it in some way.

Those whose spiritual lives are not safe

During the retreat you were hopefully able to learn a bit more about the youth and hopefully some of parts of the retreat that the youth was really drawn to.  Hopefully you were also able to learn a little bit about how the youth struggles in their faith and the struggles they may have when they get home.  Consider your responsibility and challenge the volunteers with the same to look for tools for the youth to use when they get home.  Here are a few pointers:

• Connect them with a Saint that has similar interests
• Give them schedules of all of the daily and weekend Mass times in the area
• Give a bible study that starts slow
• Give them instructions on the rosary, novenas, and other common prayers
• Offer to show them where the adoration chapel is if you have one
• Set up a challenge for them and follow-up with them each week to see how they are doing
• Connect them with other involved youth that they may not have met yet

The world that our youth live in today makes it extremely difficult for them to push forward and start living out their Catholic faith.  It will be someone like your or another volunteer that has the love and determination to walk them through it.

There is men’s conference that I have heard of that talks about loving a man until he is ready to love a man.  In many cases, a youth will need a bit more time to chew on what they received at the retreat and work on themselves a bit more.  You should not leave them until they are ready and able to share that with someone else.