Two associates hired at CYO/Young Adult office

  
   One thing is for certain. New Catholic Youth Organization associate directors Brigitte Burke and Chelsea Colomb don’t have to waste time getting acquainted. The two, hired weeks apart this summer for the Archdiocese of New Orleans CYO/Young Adult office, had worked together in youth ministry in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
   “It will be a collaborative effort,” Colomb said about the two offices, especially with activities such as World Youth Day.
    Burke agreed. Her extensive experience with the predecessors of Teen Cross and World Youth Day are already proving invaluable to planning the Oct. 27 World Youth Day.
   Burke, a native New Orleanian who attended St. Matthew the Apostle in River Ridge and St. Mary’s Dominican before graduating from LSU, takes over as associate director of youth ministry.
   She brings with her degrees in French and philosophy with a religious studies concentration and a master’s in pastoral studies from Loyola University New Orleans. Burke currently is the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry board of directors representative for Region 5 (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee) and second vice chair and will attend its “Signed, Sealed and Delivered” convention in November in Indianapolis.
Burke: Need to start young
   While working in youth ministry in the Baton Rouge Diocese, she realized, early on, the importance of enthusing middle school youth about the Catholic faith.
   “Starting in high school is too late,” Burke said. “When you start in high school, if they are not drawn into the parish at that point, it’s too late.”
   She built on-line ministry training for youth leaders, junior high retreats and added youth events such as road trips to a Hornets basketball game.
   Burke discovered a program called “Strong Catholic Families, Strong Catholic Youth” to engage parents in the faith formation of their children.
   “My last two years (in the Diocese of Baton Rouge), I worked hard in the parishes to start this program. What Strong Catholic Families does is to name for parishes and families where we are with faith formation and how society has changed. … How do you talk about faith and relate to everyday life?”
   Burke, 33, has four children ranging in age from three months to 7 years old. She would love to establish that program in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, but if not, at least have a strong focus on family to help them grow in faith, emphasizing the sacredness of family life and that raising kids is hard.
   “How can the church support them in that?” she said.
   Other areas to tackle are supporting parishes with junior high ministries and expanding it to others, and developing a youth ministry internship program to match those interested in parish work with a parish needing a part-time youth minister.
   “There really is nothing to prepare youth for ministry, so one needs to find other avenues for people who really want to be in youth ministry,” Burke said.
   At a youth minister’s forum she conducted Aug. 24, more than 50 parishes attended and received training and offered feedback on youth ministry. Through an online poll at the forum, Burke discovered that youth ministers wanted practical resources and training. Most were looking for online training and not classroom learning, she said.
Colomb: Young Adult ministry
   For Chelsea Colomb, the new associate director of Young Adult Ministry for the CYO, nurturing a feeling of community among the young adult Catholic church is the goal. It’s what she experienced in college and led her to young adult ministry.
   “That support community growing in faith together, even in times of doubt, was attractive to me and helpful and necessary for me to grow,” Colomb said.
   Colomb is from Baton Rouge, attended Sacred Heart Elementary, St. Joseph’s Academy and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in child and family studies from Louisiana State University.
   She was drawn to youth ministry as a teen – working on the diocesan youth board in high school, the diocesan youth retreat team and helping parishes organize retreats.
   “I got involved with the Diocese of Baton Rouge and the student center at Christ the King on the LSU campus with the awakening retreats” and also with Louisiana Students for Life.
   She was the director of religious education and a youth minister at Sacred Heart Parish in college and on the planning team for Charis Retreats.
   Since coming to New Orleans, the vivacious Colomb is starting to know some of the local young adult leaders.
   “I love learning of people’s situations and where they are and then serving them where they are at,” she said.
   She wants to work more closely with college campus minsters “to collaborate and give them a community to re-energize the campus ministers. I think that in college, it’s a place where people begin to lose their faith.”
   She also wants to reinvigorate the Young Adult Council by Jan. 1 to serve as advisory council for Youth Adult Ministry. It was also a vision of her predecessor, Rachel Longest, she said.
   She plans listening sessions in the coming months for young adult leaders to voice what they are looking for in young adult groups and what they can contribute to the community. She wants feedback on the idea of creating age groups within the 21-35 age group since their needs are diverse.
   One of her more successful endeavors in Baton Rouge was a woman’s Scripture study group. She hopes to tap into the current Christian Life Communities of small prayer groups and expand that. She will continue Theology on Tap and the monthly Christ in the City on the south shore.
   “There’s also been some interest in starting Christ in the City on the Northshore,” she said.
   Colomb wants to be available to help guide young adult ministries and provide resources.
   “I hope that they’ll see that the young adult community is a vibrant community in the archdiocese and has continued to be present in churches and parishes and that our office has been supportive in serving the young adults in the archdiocese and assisting those who are serving young adults,” she said.
   John Smestad, director of the CYO office, said there was interest from 15-20 applicants for both positions. Burke’s familiarity with youth ministry formation and training made her the perfect selection.
   “I wanted to get someone with diocesan experience who could hit the ground running, someone who would have a grasp of the administrative side and the parish ministry side in terms of experience,” Smestad said. “Brigitte has both. I think she’s passionate about junior high ministry, which I wanted to do more of here in the archdiocese.”
   And she took advantage of technology for training, which impressed him.
   “That’s two areas where she brings experience and expertise,” he said.
   Smestad found a peer minister for the Young Adult Ministry in Colomb. Hers is one of only 20 full-time young adult offices in the nation.
   “Chelsea is a young adult and brings some church ministry experience,” he said. “That’s an asset other candidates didn’t have. I also heard she has organizational skills that will empower and help people in the field.”
   For details on current events in the CYO office, visit www.cyo-no.org or email cyo@arch-no.org or www.yamarchno.org.