September 3, 2020
The enthusiasm and passion of CAFOD’s Young Leaders is inspiring, not just to their peers, but also to their wider communities. Despite all of the challenges this year they stepped up to the challenge of making this a summer of hope. Sinead Callaghan, CAFOD’s Young Leadership Co-ordinator, reveals what they’ve been doing.
Continue reading “Young people lead the way to a hopeful summer”July 31, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has meant that summer plans have had to change as many events have been cancelled. When you are unable to act as planned, it’s easy to feel like your chance to make a difference has gone. Julia Corcoran, Leadership Development Coordinator at CAFOD, reminds us that there are still many ways we can make a difference this summer.
Continue reading “How to be a sign of hope this summer”December 5, 2019
As we get swept up in all the manic preparations this festive season, it is important to remember the true meaning of Advent and Christmas. Sinead Callaghan, Young Leadership Coordinator at CAFOD, believes it is an opportunity to spread love and give to those in need. Continue reading “World Gifts: give the gift of love”
November 15, 2019
Visiting Lebanon as part of a CAFOD initiative, student Joshua Nichol, 21, explains how he experienced warmth, welcome, strength and the Kingdom of God.
Continue reading “Reflections on a Lebanese journey ”September 3, 2019
Susan Kambalu is Secondary Inset Coordinator at CAFOD. Here she shares how her experience of working with young people has helped her develop new courses as part of the Connecting Classrooms Through Global Learning programme, supported by the British Council.
Continue reading “Putting faith into action in schools”August 29, 2019
School students worldwide have been raising their voices to demand that the climate emergency is addressed with urgency. As Swedish schoolgirl campaigner Greta Thunberg famously said: “I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”
At CAFOD, we are privileged to encounter children and young people acting on this issue both in poor communities overseas and in England and Wales.
Continue reading “Young people lead the way on tackling the climate emergency”June 2, 2017
“Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded.” Laudato Si #13
We know that many young people take action with CAFOD, working together to overcome poverty and injustice throughout the world. Many of our partners across the world empower young people to transform their societies.
We’re inspired by them, and know that young people in the UK have the same ability to take the lead, which is why we focus on this area of work in the UK, supporting young people to be key influencers of their peers and local communities.
The CAFOD Young Leadership programme is one of the ways we engage a younger audience in our work, offering sixth-formers an opportunity to take the lead by volunteering for CAFOD to make a difference in fighting poverty and injustice.
May 16, 2017
In the weeks before the general election on 8 June 2017, CAFOD supporters across the country are getting involved by speaking to all political parties and candidates about how the poorest communities across the world must be kept in mind during the upcoming election.
There are many reasons why supporters choose to get involved and here are some of their stories.
Download our general election 2017 briefing
Eleanor Margetts, 24, who is currently is a mission and outreach Officer for Wellspring Community, Brighton, addressed CAFOD supporters and MPs at a recent reception that was held in parliament.
Continue reading “The reason why I’m getting involved in the general election”
March 14, 2017
CAFOD volunteer, Leah Fox, 19, from Newcastle spoke to thousands of young people at Flame 2017 about her experiences of meeting refugees in Lebanon and sharing messages of hope from the UK. Here, she reflects on her experience and encourages others to act.
Tell us why you were on stage with CAFOD at the Wembley SSE Arena on Saturday 11 March.
Last year I was part of Youth Ministry Team in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, whilst I was there I became a CAFOD Ambassador with representatives from other retreat centres around the country. All around the media, we could see that there were a lot of negative things being said about refugees, and they weren’t being treated in a dignified way. We decided that the Refugee Crisis needed to be addressed so we started talking to the young people we worked with about refugees and gathering messages of hope from them.
Join the 10,000 reasons to hope challenge – write a message today
September 9, 2016
As a new term begins, CAFOD’s Elouise Hobbs spoke to young leader Jouriz, from Chertsey, about her experiences and advice for those thinking of taking part this September.
Over the last academic year CAFOD has worked with 245 young people from across seven dioceses as part of CAFOD’s young leadership programme. These young people spent the year learning about justice issues and developing leadership skills. Collectively they have reached around 65,000 people through their campaigning, speaking at Mass, fundraising, assemblies, blogs and tweets.
In the last academic year, Jouriz took part in the CAFOD young leadership programme; when I met her, she was presenting to lower forms from her school about the impact of CAFOD.
Learn how you can get involved in the young leadership programme
You recently attended the end of year Young Leadership celebration day with CAFOD. Do you have a moment that particularly sticks out for you?
“My favourite moment was actually at the beginning of the day. We had just arrived and as an ice-breaker we had to go round the tables and meet everyone. When we went around the tables with just a 30-second gap. It was so fast. I only had a short time to make a conversation and crack a joke. Even though it was only a short amount of time, it actually allowed me to get to know people really well. It was so much fun travelling up to London and getting to meet all the different people.”
