Web resource to equip children as confident evangelisers

The creators of a pioneering evangelistic website for children have high hopes that it will help support and form a new generation of confident, grass roots, faith-filled evangelisers.

www.yfaith.co.uk has been created by the Catholic Agency To Support Evangelisation (CASE), which is an agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The new site is designed to cater for 10 – 13 year olds who have questions to ask and want to learn more about their journey of faith. As such the site is designed to enable “tweenagers” to engage with, explore and express their Catholic Faith. It features more than 20 interactive pages covering music and film, ‘Girls only’ and ‘Boys only’ sections, book reviews, the Bible and a questions area. ‘Step Ahead’ interviews are likely to be particularly popular; these feature teenagers of 14 – 16 years old who serve as role models, particularly in the area of being open about one’s faith.

Emily Davis is one of the Yfaith creators and said: “We’ve called Yfaith ‘One Big Adventure’ because that’s precisely what it aims to provide. It covers the questions that children are asking: ‘Am I good enough? How can I be a good friend? What’s faith got to do with my life? What does the cross mean anyway?’ We have high hopes that the site will become a regular topic of playground conversation and help form a new generation of faith-filled and confident Catholic evangelists.”

Key to the site’s strategy is that it has been moulded, and in parts co-written (with adult help), by the target age group who’ve energetically given input and feedback every step of the way. The site showcases a wealth of talent from a pool of budding young writers.

James is aged 12 and attended a pre-launch children’s party. He said: “It’s easy to understand. The things they say you can really relate to whereas at Mass sometimes, it can be hard to understand.” Meanwhile, Mary, aged 12, said: “I think it is very good and interesting. It will appeal to people who aren’t Christians. It has pages about pets and things like that.”

Yfaith is to be used primarily in the home to enable children, perhaps along with other family members, to express their faith in a creative way and help them to discover that they’re part of a vast faith community which has Jesus Christ has its focus. Complementing what children receive in Catholic schools, it is also hoped that through using the site children will be helped to become aware that they have a contribution to make to the world at large as Catholics.

His Eminence, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has commended the site: “Children need a sense of belonging to a wider Catholic community, especially during the transition years between primary and secondary school, when things can be unstable. During these years, for a variety of reasons, young people’s faith is often challenged and undermined. Some parents struggle to know how best to communicate the Catholic Faith to their children in a way that they can understand. The new ‘YFaith’ website is therefore a welcome and timely resource for the Catholic community, providing creative and invaluable support for children, parents and teachers alike.”

During the creation of this resource CASE has worked in liaison with the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) and has been advised by the Child Exploitation And Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

The site will go live on 7th September 2008.

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For Editors

Catholic Agency To Support Evangelisation www.caseresources.org.uk

Matt Tidbury and Amanda Nelson are the Directors of IMDC which is a web design company; they created the site alongside Emily Davis from CASE.

An endorsements sheet for the site is available and includes additional quotations from:

Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Birmingham

Mgr Keith Barltrop
Director of the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE)

Adrian Child
Director of Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS)

For more information please tel: 020 8458 3316. E-mail: Emily.Davis@caseresources.org.uk

For general media enquiries contact: Clare.Ward@caseresources.org.uk Tel: 0770 939 1998. Alternatively, please contact the CCN. E-mail: ccn@cbcew.org.uk Tel: 020 7901 4800