Movers and Shakers Continues to Shape Young Leaders

Movers and Shakers again proved popular for Catholic youth leaders from around Queensland as well as some interstate participants from the Maitland Newcastle Diocese.

The Christian leadership training program, run from 29 March to 2 April at the James Byrne Centre, provided young people from a variety of parishes, schools and youth movements’ high quality leadership training in a safe and fun environment. It also provided an opportunity for the group, aged 16 to 25, to support and network with others in person outside of social media or their immediate circle of friends.

Movers and Shakers is led by a team of youth ministry professionals, facilitated by Dave Jorna from Project Hatch and is one of the longest running leadership training initiatives in Australia. Since beginning in 1991, over 2000 people have participated in the program. Dave himself is part of the Movers and Shakers family, not just as facilitator, but as past participant!

“It was incredible watching so many participants create a deep inner shift in their understanding and practice of leadership,” observed Dave. “Understandably, a lot of young people view leadership in terms of giving directions, solutions and ideas in order to create an outcome.  During the program however, a lot of the young people had their “Aha” moments by experiencing, practicing and identifying leadership in terms of a process which creates a positive influence.”

One of the strengths of the program is its ability to combine theory and practical leadership development with different activities to challenge participants. During the residential five day program participants were challenged both individually, and in small groups, to work on problem solving, teamwork and adventure based activities.

Another highlight is the “Questions of Faith” session with Fr Morgan Batt of the Vocations Office Brisbane. This year’s participants really valued Fr Morgan’s honesty, openness and input into this session. Fr Morgan has been a part of the Movers and Shakers family for some 19 years now by giving his time as chaplain and pastoral support to the program.

Sarah de Byl, Youth Coordinator for the Toowoomba Diocese said this year’s program continues to build on the successes of the past. The hard work of past coordinators and facilitators make Movers and Shakers the exceptional program it is today.

“Every year we learn something new about the program and how we can improve the experience for the young people who attend. The program is evolving and constantly growing. It keeps it fresh and dynamic.” She said ”It’s important to the leadership team that the program is flexible and can be tailored to suit individual participants and the Movers and Shakers group that attend from year to year.”

Participant Daniel Duskovic, from Villanova College Brisbane, reflected, “Movers and Shakers is a life changing program that helped me to develop effective leadership skills, expand my faith and make connections with like minded young people.”

Photos and information about Movers and Shakers 2016 can be found on the Movers and Shakers Facebook page as well as www.moversandshakers.org.au. The program will again run in 2017, keep an eye out for promotional material available later in the year or check back at the website for updates.

5 Easy Fundraising Tips to get you to Movers & Shakers

One of the most common reasons for not attending Movers and Shakers is money – “It’s too expensive”, “We haven’t budgeted to send someone”, “I just can’t afford to do it”. . . . While we try to keep the cost down (the registration fee has a $0 profit margin), we also understand that nearly $400 can be a lot of money to produce in one go, especially for individuals.

Note:  We strongly advise participants work with their school, parish or community group on their fundraising efforts.  Also the registration fee is not due up front, schools/parishes/diocese/ministries are invoiced after the program has been run.  This gives time all the way up to Movers and Shakers to get your funds together.

So to help you lessen, even cover, the registration cost here are our top 5 easy fundraising tips.

5.  Sponsorship

While it might seem easy, it can be hard to simply ask for people to give you money for what might appear to be nothing.  However, the thing people are sponsoring is your long term commitment to your community, so you’ll need to “sell yourself”.  Ask to speak after mass or on school assemblies and tell everyone how you’re interested in Movers and Shakers, how you’d like to improve yourself, how you’d like to meet other youth leaders and most importantly, what you hope to bring back to your community from the experience.

A simple way to gather your donations is to stand at the door after mass or assembly with a bucket as people are leaving so they can give you spare change or their sponsorship donation.  You should also work with your school or parish office to enlist their help in collecting sponsorship money too.

4.  Raffle

A simple raffle with a small prize pool and (comparative) small profit doesn’t require a permit to run (see www.business.gov.qld.au). With a small prize pool and keeping the cost of a ticket to $1 or $2, you can run a raffle in the space of a week or two.  Make a big deal of the prize draw, ask to announce it at a school assembly or after mass.  Your prize pool can be as simple as your school/parish/yourself purchasing some gift cards.  Or if you’re feeling ambitious, kick it up a notch and ask a local businesses or craft groups to donate products or gift vouchers.

3.  Sporting Event

You can’t go past the good ol’ fashioned premise of a something-a-thon!  Be it walk, run, skip, hop, jump, any physical activity can be turned into a means to raise money.  You can even get everyone involved, for example if you’re at school, enlist people to help complete relay laps of the school grounds.  The idea is simple, ask people to sponsor you for completing a specific task.  For example ask people to give you 50c for every lap of the sports oval you complete in a lunch hour.  Make it a spectacle and ask people to come watch you do it.

How about a students versus teachers grudge match?  Any team sport, stage it in a lunch hour or after school.  Get all spectators and participants to make a gold coin donation.

2.  Food, Glorious Food

Nothing beats a sausage sizzle, what can be simpler?  For a small outlay, go cheap and simple on bread, BBQ sausages and tomato sauce, you can run a sausage sizzle at any time with little notice.  Ask your school if you could run it in a lunch hour in a prominent place, or ask your parish if you could run it after mass.  No BBQ or weather too hot, why not do an ice cream day instead?  Again something with a small outlay like cheap tubs of vanilla or Neapolitan ice cream and wafer cones.  Either of these options would be easy to make the money back to cover the initial outlay and make a respectable profit.

How about asking your school’s tuckshop to share in their proceeds for a day?  Offer to help out for a lunch hour and promote the fact that proceeds are going to you.  Perhaps you could choose a particular product (e.g. profits on all Paddle Pops sold today) or agree to an overall profit (e.g. half/all of today’s profits).

1.  Free Dress Day

While everything on this list is easy, this would have to be the easiest fundraising event.  Organise with your class, year or even whole school to wear “normal clothes” instead of uniform in exchange for a gold coin donation.  Or put a spin on it, like wear bright socks or different shoes or crazy hats and again, get people to bring a gold coin donation.

Movers and Shakers has been operating for over 25 years in Queensland and is a mainstay in Youth Leadership Training for a lot of schools, parishes and dioceses across Australia.  Go to www.moversandshakers.org.au to find out more about the program and register to participate today.