Advice Needed: Engaging Young Adults in Small Towns

[Psalm51]

I am a young professional woman currently serving on the core team for my parish's recently created young adult group. The group is a ministry that meets twice monthly, designed to engage adults ages 22-35 who are out of college but not quite settled down yet. Like many ministries, we had some issues with engaging young adults in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now that things are opening up again, I feel called to continue to engage young adults in the area. 

Here is one of our challenges: our parish is not in a large metro area. We are located in a college town in northern AZ (metro population around 140,000 not including the students). Consequently, we have had an average 15 people attend each young adult event since the group was created in 2019. There are some surrounding small towns near our parish (each with populations between 10 and 12 thousand). Each of the small towns has its own parish but not nearly enough young adults to have a young adult ministry. I recently met a young lady from one of the neighboring small towns 33 miles west who has been coming to our young adult group. I've been praying about finding ways to engage young adults from the neighboring small towns because community is essential for spiritual growth. 

I feel called to extend this young adult ministry to our neighboring small towns. My question has to do with where to start without being awkward. I suppose I could go to Mass at the parishes in the neighboring small towns and talk with people in the narthex who appear to be young adults needing community, but that seems a little forced. I suppose we could also advertise in the parish bulletins with their pastors' permission, but in my experience people don't come to events without a personal invitation. 

Does anyone more experienced in advice on connecting with young adults who attend parishes in our neighboring small towns?

 

 

[CatherineM]

Start an adult education program. Apologetics work great or dead theologians society. 

[Winchester]

Buy an affordable ring.

[little2add]

The old school way is to “settle down, Marry and start a family”

[CS937]

On 8/20/2021 at 5:02 PM, Psalm51 said:

I am a young professional woman currently serving on the core team for my parish's recently created young adult group. The group is a ministry that meets twice monthly, designed to engage adults ages 22-35 who are out of college but not quite settled down yet. Like many ministries, we had some issues with engaging young adults in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now that things are opening up again, I feel called to continue to engage young adults in the area. 

Here is one of our challenges: our parish is not in a large metro area. We are located in a college town in northern AZ (metro population around 140,000 not including the students). Consequently, we have had an average 15 people attend each young adult event since the group was created in 2019. There are some surrounding small towns near our parish (each with populations between 10 and 12 thousand). Each of the small towns has its own parish but not nearly enough young adults to have a young adult ministry. I recently met a young lady from one of the neighboring small towns 33 miles west who has been coming to our young adult group. I've been praying about finding ways to engage young adults from the neighboring small towns because community is essential for spiritual growth. 

I feel called to extend this young adult ministry to our neighboring small towns. My question has to do with where to start without being awkward. I suppose I could go to Mass at the parishes in the neighboring small towns and talk with people in the narthex who appear to be young adults needing community, but that seems a little forced. I suppose we could also advertise in the parish bulletins with their pastors' permission, but in my experience people don't come to events without a personal invitation. 

Does anyone more experienced in advice on connecting with young adults who attend parishes in our neighboring small towns?

 

 

I'm in a similar situation. I come from a small town where Catholics are the minority. We used to have a young adult group, but it shut down because we only had somewhere between 5-8 people. The only other place to meet young adults here is bars or Protestant groups. 

I recommend doing both the things you suggested. Advertise in other parish's bulletins while also going to other churches and setting up a welcome table after Sunday Masses. That way, you can meet other people without it feeling forced.  

 

P.S. ,

 

If you decide to offer Zoom/Teams participants, please send me a message! I'm looking for Catholic fellowship, too. :) 

[cartermia]

Hi! 

I am a 22 year old in a small rural town in Kentucky. My parish is starting up a young adult group with a neighboring parish. For the kick off, we had a candlelight mass and a social afterward with drinks and appetizers. They offered free childcare during the social afterwards. (A huge plus to support young families!) 

I would try to keep events simple and laid back to begin with. If you are in a good area to go hiking, that is always a good event too. 

When I studied abroad in Ireland, I loved Youth 2000 and their mission: https://youth2000.ie/about/how-we-began/