Part 1

Listening to Families: Insights from Research

Watch the Video Presentation of the “National Profile of Parents” and the “Profile of 8000+ Parents in the Catholic Family Project.” Review the summaries of both reports, on pages 2-4 in the Online Workshop Guide.

Parent & Family
Research Studies

Presented by John Roberto

Using the three questions for “Analyzing the Parent Café Results,” summarize what emerged from the parent responses. (See page 5 in the Online Workshop Guide.)

Using the questions from “Analyzing Parent Survey Findings” summarize what you learned about parents and families from the results of the survey questions. (See page 5 in the Online Workshop Guide.)

Using the results of the Parent Café and the Parent Survey, develop a portrait of families  – their faith, their practices, and their interests – by completing the statement: Parents and families in our parish…. (Keep these results for using the designing parent and family activities.)

Part 2

Profile of Parish Faith Formation: First Two Decades of Life

Using the worksheet on page 6 of the Online Workshop Guide, create a parish profile of faith formation from birth to 19 years old – on a newsprint sheet. Use the format and questions on the worksheet to create your profile. (It may be best to create this a sheet on easel paper.)

Part 3

Analysis: Parish Faith Formation Today – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)

Use the SWOT process (on page 7 of the Online Workshop Guide) to analyze parish faith formation in the first two decades of life. Use the SWOT format to create a 2x2 matrix on a sheet of easel paper. Use the information from the Profile (Part 2) and the Research (Part 1 to help you answer the four SWOT questions.

Create your SWOT analysis using the questions in each quadrant and write your responses on an sheet of easel paper.

Reflect on your responses in each quadrant by answering the following questions (on a new sheet of easel paper).

• What are our strengths? What’s working
• What are the challenges or areas for growth?
• What are the new opportunities (possibilities) for faith formation?
• What are the forces impacting parents and families?

Part 4

Priority Areas for Development in Parent & Family Faith Formation

Use the process on page 8 of Online Workshop Guide to identify up to six areas where the parish needs to develop family faith formation from birth through 19 years old.

Review the work from the Portrait of Our Families – the concluding question to the review of Parent Café and the Parent Survey results: Parents and families in our parish….

Review the answers to the four questions about what they learned from the SWOT Analysis.

Identify up to 6 priority areas that the parish needs to address in developing faith formation with families and parents. Priorities for action can include:

• Strengthening a current initiative (program, activity, resource, etc.)
• Improving or expanding a current initiative (program, activity, resource, etc.)
• Addressing an audience that is not being served or is underserved
• Designing a new initiative to address a weakness or develop a new opportunity

Part 5

Vision & Design for Parent & Family Faith Formation in the First Two Decades of Life

Watch the "Vision" video and read Part 5 in Online Workshop Guide (pages 9-16)

Vision of Parent &
Family Formation

Presented by John Roberto

Begin the process of designing a family faith formation plan using the Guide for Creating a Family Faith Formation Plan. Follow the process outlined in the Guide to create ideas, programs, strategies, and resources for parent and family faith formation. Here is an overview of the process:

The six elements of the Framework for Family Faith Formation provide the structure for generating ideas (age-appropriate faith forming programs, activities, strategies, and resources) for creating a parish plan for parent and family faith formation in the first two decades of life – young children, grade school children, young adolescents, and older adolescents. The six elements include:

1. Forming the faith of the family at home
2. Forming the faith of the family in the parish
3. Equipping parents with practices and skills for parenting
4. Equipping parents to be faith formers of their children/teens
5. Providing family catechesis for the entire family
6. Fostering intergenerational relationships

Process

1. Review what you learned from your portrait of families – their faith, their practices, and their interests – using the summary statements from the “Parents and families in our parish….”
2. Review the parish profile of faith formation from birth to 19 years old. Include programs and activities that you want to continue doing in your plan.
3. Review your SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses/ Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats.
4. Review the 6 priority areas your team identified that the parish needs to address in developing faith formation with families and parents.
5. Generate ideas for all styles of faith and practice by developing ideas that address Active Believers (who have a vibrant faith and are engaged in the parish); Believers (who participate occasionally in a parish community); Inactive Believers (who are not involved in a parish, but may value and live a spiritual life); and Inactive Nonbelievers.

Activity

The six elements provide the template for generating ideas. You can generate ideas in two ways:

• First, there are ideas/strategies/programs/activities that are designed for one or two life stages, e.g., activities for children.
• Second, there are ideas/strategies/programs/ activities that apply to all four life stages, e.g., parent workshops to introduce a new stage of life.

The key in generating ideas/strategies is to give yourself and the team the freedom to imagine new  possibilities. Don’t place limits on your creativity.

• Generate as many ideas and strategies as possible. Feel free to add onto other’s ideas.
• Assume you have the resources you need for any idea (money, staff, facility, etc.).
• Remember that there is no discussion and no critique of ideas.

After you finish generating ideas, connect similar ideas. Then create a final list of all the ideas you have generated.

Develop two reports (on easel paper) – one with ideas for each life stage, and one with ideas that apply to all four life stages. Use the examples on the next pages as a guide. Bring these reports to Workshop 2.