Archdiocese of New Orleans's IMANI Team
Changing Youth & Young Adult Ministry
By Veronique Dorsey
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 Who said youth can only help set up and tear down things for church? Who said youth didn't participate in church? Who said youth didn't have faith? Well the Imani team from New Orleans, Louisiana is the exact opposite of these stereotypes. The group was developed between the Office of Black Catholic Ministries and the CYO Youth & Young Adult Ministry office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The 35 Imani team is made up of members from the Black Catholic parishes and high schools within the Archdiocese. The youth, young adults, and adults are participants of the ROCK (Rebuilding Our Christian Kingdom - the Black Catholic young adult ministry of the Archdiocese), CLI (Catholic Leadership Institute - a week long leadership program sponsored by the CYO office), Teen Cross (the youth ministry leadership board of the Archdiocese that puts on the annual youth conference for the Archdiocese), and attendees of The National Black Catholic Congress that was recently held in Buffalo.
The Imani team has done many extraordinary things in the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its first year of existence. Some of these are writing a 5-year strategic plan for youth and young adult ministry for the black parishes in the Archdiocese. The Imani team put together and ran the youth track at the Evangelization Conference hosted by the Archdiocese. Some of the members help to do retreats and workshops in our parishes on youth ministry. They participated in the Black Saints Celebration. The Imani team recently hosted a Youth and Young Adults Revival where there 400+ people in attendance. At our final meeting in March, we hosted a group of 60 youth and adults that came down to New Orleans from Columbus, Ohio to help rebuild our city during their spring break. We are also about to go on a new retreat called Habari Gani designed for our Black Catholic youth that we will shape, grow, and lead in the years to come. Pictures of all our events can be found on our leader's (and my confirmation sponsor), Ansel Augustine, website:
www.holyhotboy.com.
The Imani team has done so much for me. I've met many people and really grown in my faith. Mr. Ansel always reminds us that this is not a replacement for our own youth groups at our parishes. We are supposed to take what we learn and experience through Imani and bring it back to our home parishes. We are always reminded that we are role models to our peers and to our adults as well. Plus our work is to help our city and Archdiocese become better than they were before the storm.
Veronique Dorsey is a student at McDonough 35 Senior High School in New Orleans, LA. She is also a very active member of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. Veronique is the daughter of Mrs. Veronica Downs-Dorsey, choir director of St. Peter Claver. Veronique will be receiving the sacrament of Confirmation in late April.
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