Description: Gather young adult Catholic professionals together for fellowship, support, and networking and help them integrate their faith into their professional lives.
Get Ready
- Prep Time: Set aside four to five hours for advance planning to prepare a year’s worth of monthly speakers. Produce a flier that includes all the dates and speakers of interest. One hour of set-up is needed for each gathering.
- Volunteers Needed: A committee of three to six people. This group helps with brainstorming and recruiting speakers as well as selecting a venue:
- One main person to be the leader.
- One person to handle the registration table.
- One person to lead the prayer.
- One person to facilitate the networking.
- Supplies: Nametags, registration sheet, evaluation forms, any fliers you want to hand out to the young adults.
- Reserve the Space: We selected a downtown restaurant with a private room that can comfortably handle anywhere from 15 to 45 attendees. Another option is to use a local Catholic bookstore, or similar venue, that has a private meeting room where you can have the food catered.
- Ideal Group Size: 15 to 40.
- Who is this for? All young adults working in the secular world.
- When is a good time for this? 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on a weekday. Another option is a weeknight dinner.
- Publicize the Program:
- Ask your speakers and young adults to hang the announcement flier in the break rooms at their offices.
- Use Catholic radio to promote the series.
- Facebook and any diocesan young adult promotion lists are helpful as well.
- Make the local Legatus, Rotary Clubs or other professional organizations aware of the gatherings to help spread the word.
- On all publications, be sure to include information about the cost and how to RSVP for the event.
Prayer for Program Planner: Loving God, thank you for the call you have placed in my heart and the opportunity you have given me to serve. Please help me to fully integrate my faith into my professional life and, in so doing, serve you in all I do. Amen.
Community Building: Community building is a big part of this program. Our program formally runs from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to be respectful of people’s limited lunch hours. However, people begin to arrive sometime after 11 to socialize, and many stay after 12:30 to talk with one another and with the speaker. The first half hour of the program (11:30-12) is spent on introductions and conversations or questions while eating. The second half hour is focused on the speaker’s presentation.
