BRANCH OF THE VINCENTIAN FAMILY INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT: Vincentian Marian Youth

NAME OF SYSTEMIC CHANGE PROJECT: Operation Overhaul

PROJECT ADDRESS: A week long mission project held in June each year and taking place throughout different areas of the United States

CONTACT PERSON: Shirley Klump

LENGTH OF TIME THE PROJECT/PROGRAM HAS BEEN IN EXISTENCE: 6 years

PROJECT WEBSITE: www.vmy.us

A week long mission trip for teens. The week includes teens and adults working with the disadvantaged in conjunction with formation and faith development. The average teen builds awareness of the necessity to reach out to their neighbors not just that week but as a life journey and are able to understand the role their faith plays in that.

The project participants are VMY family members. The adults lead with the assistance of young adults in college (many former members of the teen group). In the past 6 years we have grown to having our teen participants returning to the yearly mission project now as directors and coordinators of the week. They also have grown into holding positions on the steering committee of our organization and other committees that continue to help VMY grow and continue to exist.

The week consists of working with organizations that are already in place such as St. Vincent de Paul Society and others who also work with individual home owners. While the adults have substantial control of the project in implementing the schedule and the work sites it soon becomes everyone’s work projects. While some of the homeowners and places that we do service are involved, our main task as Vincentian Marian Youth is to empower the youth to see the needs of the poor and to learn to serve them through the eyes of Christ. So while the poor may not have the systemic change it is pertinent to our organization and goals that our youth have systemic change in their ability to serve and to love persons who are poor. We divide the leadership between all age groups and participants according to their desires and their talents thus encompassing all.

We work with the youth in promoting an attitude of service and love to persons who are poor. When our youth of today can develop a heart for their church and for their neighbor the greatest of all systemic change has taken place.

We also have a weekend mission trip called, Mission Vincent each fall that falls into the same category of systemic change as the weeklong mission trip. We have had 9 weekend experiences since our beginnings in 2003.




Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.