Passionate about providing a faith-filled space for our young people

12/08/2021

From St Teresa’s Catholic College student, Creative and Performing Arts graduate with honours, to now studying a Masters of Teaching Early Childhood and Primary – Charlotte Pitot is a motivated woman passionate about supporting her community. 

But it’s her role now as a Brisbane Catholic Education Youth Leader that Charlotte is finding huge satisfaction in, and one that we’re celebrating today on this International Youth Day. 

“As Youth Leaders, we look at invitational opportunities for children to express their faith, learn about their faith and to know that they are loved with a strong community around them,” Charlotte said. 

The Youth Leaders in BCE’s Catholic Identity team, work in the student formation space. One of the successful programs organised in partnership with the students are formation retreats. 

“It’s important to give our young people a platform to be heard, and the opportunity to take some time, reflect, chill out and refocus on their lives and what they’re looking for in the future,” Charlotte said. 

“In June this year we had a year 10 retreat called PoTENtial at the Sofitel where we had year 10 students from all different schools come together and celebrate being hopeful, and to share what they aspire to in the next part of their schooling life as well as into the future.” 

“We have also started year 5-6 formation days. These are peer-to-peer Ministry events which means we have high school students joining and helping to facilitate those days. We train those high school students beforehand so it’s a great learning experience for them also,” Charlotte said. 

A focus is placed on mobilising the engagement of our young people in issues important to them and about living a hope-filled life. 

“The children feel like they’re being heard and seen, but also that we’re making that faith experience a really inclusive and inviting place,” Charlotte said.

“At the retreats, we always start with acknowledgement of country and a prayer, then for, for example during our year 10 PoTENtial event we had a guest speaker Chris Tamwoy who was fantastic. We then break up into workshops, with assistance from groups like Catholic Mission and St Vincent De Pauls to help run the activities.

“Our Year 5-6 formation days are called Living Saints, which is all about encouraging and teaching the kids on how to be living saints every day. We unpack that concept and dive deeper into it through workshops. We always have a commissioning or final prayer at the end of the day,” Charlotte said.

With current issues like COVID-19 and climate change, it is even more pertinent we encourage our young people to voice their concerns, ideas and issues important to them. 

“Doing all the retreats, and even working with kids in different areas is fantastic – just to see where they’re at because they’re all living in this crazy world too, so it’s nice to be able to connect in with them and touch base.”

BCE is grateful to have positive, inspirational mentors like Charlotte for our young people. The Catholic Identity team are working on developing further resources to support our students and teachers. For students wishing to become involved, contact the Catholic Identity Team, Student Voice​, or speak with their APRE or Campus Minister. 

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