ALL OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS IN YOUR PACKET. DON’T OPEN THEM!!! REMEMBER WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DO!!!

So how do you start a Junior Vincentian group? First you ask your conference if you can start a Junior Vincentian group. Seek out the approval of the principal and the CCD coordinator. Find a place and time that you can meet each month. Have your meetings right after school in a room that is in the school or close to it. Go to classrooms and CCD rooms and explain what they will be doing as Junior Vincentians.

Pass out applications and introduction letters. A few days before the first meeting, pass out news letters to the same classrooms and CCD rooms you visited earlier to remind the new Vincentians when and where the first meeting will be.

Agenda for the First Meeting Have drinks and snacks for the kids. Start your meeting with an opening prayer. Have a radio for entertainment. Have a group picture taken (first meeting only). Later have pictures of each child taken. Tell stories about St. Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam. Have a quick and easy service project. Ask your kids about future projects and/or community service projects they can do for others. Closing prayer.

Future Meetings At each meeting have drinks and snacks for the kids, opening prayer for a sick child, a radio for entertainment, and be prepared to tell a story about SVDP. Let the kids give you ideas for who they want to help, why, and how they want to do this. Take ideas and pick one out that is workable and had both public and kid appeal! Go back and ask the kids for their feedback on one specific project they can do. Gather more ideas from the kids of how to go about the project. Refine those ideas. Let the kids tell you what they would like to tell the public about their project. Use their ideas in the notices, letters, etc. Go back and refine that paperwork. Come to the next meeting with the completed paperwork and an explanation of how the project will work and how they will participate in this group project. Have fun at the meetings!!!

Last Meeting of the Year Arrange with your priest to have a closing mass at a convenient location. After mass have a picnic, hot dog roast, or pot luck with the kids and their families. Ask all the families to bring a dish to share..

Pass out Certificates of Recognition and St. Vincent de Paul medals

Questions???