Accompany Families
Help families navigate different stages, from baptism through high school (and beyond)!
Help parents grow in their own faith and coach them to share faith with their children. This is an essential part of evangelization that we often overlook as leaders (or assume will just automatically happen). This is how we can best accompany parents and families.
Study after study tells us that parents are the largest influence on whether their children remain Catholic—much more important than our religious education programs or schools—but somehow over the years we've given them the idea that they can delegate this gift and responsibility to parish leaders.
The good news is that when we coach and equip parents, they really do step up. They love the opportunities we can provide to share God's love with them and help them grow into their faith.
Start at Baptism
Meet parents where they are at—in all the messiness and chaos of welcoming a baby into their lives.
Growing Up Catholic Baptism Preparation
A process for engaging, evangelizing, and coaching young parents
We have heard from many people who are frustrated with the state of baptismal preparation. Many parents jump through the hoops, while being bored by the details of sacramental theology which seem distant from their experience. Pastoral leaders lament the parents' disinterest, and how rarely they see these parents in church again. It's time for a new approach. This process was designed to engage parents by starting where they are at, evangelize them, and equip them for their role in passing on the faith. Help them reflect on how God is working in their lives and how they are dying to themselves in self-giving love for their child, as Jesus did for us.
Accompany Young Families
Stay connected to parents during these busy years, when we often lose touch with them.
After the Plunge
A process for engaging, evangelizing, and coaching young parents
Use After to Plunge to easily send postal mailings to families after baptism to say you remember them, invite them to the parish, and coach them about introducing faith to their child.
Accompany During the Sacraments
This is a wonderful time to form families together and coach parents on how to pass on their faith.
Growing Up Catholic Sacramental Preparation
A Flexible Whole Family Process
Bring parents into the prep process! Form parents and help them form their own children. Help them prepare for First Eucharist and Reconciliation, but also learn to bring the faith home.
Accompany in the Early School Years
Involve parents throughout faith formation and help them reflect on and address the challenges they face with the help of their faith.
Learn about Whole Family Catechesis
Find out why this approach is so essential and effective. Download our free Why Coach Parents? Resource Kit to get started and explore many other helpful "getting started" and planning resources.
Hold Whole Family Sessions
Invite parents and kids to attend fun, activity-based whole family sessions together. These events will form parents and help them practice passing on their faith with the support of catechists and other parents. Many of our resources feature simple, step-by-step instructions for parents to empower them to work with their own chlidren.
Gather Parents for Conversation
Give parents the gift of adult conversation by holding parent sessions while their children are in class. Use our Growing Up Catholic Parent Conversations and other resources to teach them about faith and address common issues such as managing their kids' technology use, navigating youth sports, and raising "kids who care."
Send Helpful Tools Home
Distribute our compact "On the Run" leaflets, as well as other books and booklets for busy parents. Give parents helpful tips about bringing faith home in bite-sized pieces.
Accompany in the Tween & Teen Years
Help youth remember how helpful and relevant their faith is as they grow into adulthood, and encourage parents to remain active in passing on their faith.
Learn How to Be a Youth (and Parent) Accompanist
Youth crave relationship and are skeptical of institutions, and our disconnect with them as a church has led to staggering number of disaffiliated youth. Develop a vision, a methodology, and practical tools to shift from telling young people what to believe to instead accompanying young people on their faith journey.
Offer Sessions that Matter
Our In Real Life series accompanies youth by exploring tough questions that they face today, and the sessions are built so that parents are welcome to attend. All of our youth sessions will guide them on a journey for meaning and identity.
Accompany through Confirmation
In dioceses where confirmation is received during the teen years, facilitate conversation between between parents and candidates with Learning Centers for Confirmation and use other tools to make this a meaningful experience.
Coach Parents of Youth
Give parents the tools they need to help their tween and teen children and walk with them through these sometimes tumultuous years. Parents sometimes think they need to step back as their children are moving toward adulthood. But youth truly need (and secretly want) their parents to lean in at this time. Coach parents to be there for their kids and to provide a faith foundation.