CSAN Leadership Conference - Rome
Reflection written by Kate Wilkinson, CEO of Million Minutes
In the final week of May, I had the privilege of joining colleagues from across the Catholic social action network in Rome for the CSAN Leadership Conference. Bringing together leaders from charities, diocesan Caritas agencies and Catholic organisations from across England and Wales, it was a chance to step away from the day-to-day of our work and discern together about how we, as a collective, can build more compassionate communities.
For me, one of the greatest strengths of Million Minutes has always been our willingness to work collaboratively. Spending time with others who share a commitment to Catholic Social Teaching, justice and human dignity was both encouraging and energising. And in many of our discussions and times of discernment it was great to be able to bring in the voices and experiences of young people.
The conference invited us into four working groups: one on young people, one on the dignity of work, flourishing communities and the challenges facing our organisations.
Unsurprisingly, I found myself in the conversations around young people. We discussed the importance of l listening to young people but also and importantly moving beyond listening towards genuinely sharing power and responsibility with them. It reinforces something we strive to do every day at Million Minutes, to ensure young people are not just beneficiaries of our work but active partners in shaping it. This workstream greatly affirmed the work that we do and I was delighted to be able to share our work to help develop youth engagement across the network.
Alongside the workshops, we heard from inspiring speakers from across the global Caritas family and the wider Church. Each talk left me inspired with new ideas and dreams for the future of Million Minutes and many reinforced the need for our work and the way in which we work. It was great to hear, for example, from Rebecca Rathbone who is responsible for youth at Caritas International. To hear that internationally they are championing youth participation at trustee board level and beyond was great to hear and their call encouragement to each organisation to include young people and their experience was really encouraging.
A highlight was also attending the Papal audience and being able to visit the dicastery for integral human development as well as Caritas International. To hear from Pope Leo, and to meet with leaders in the dicastery and caritas international was a wonderful reminder of our connection with an international community who are also committed to the work we do.
I headed home after a truly wonderful conference feeling extremely grateful to be part of such a vibrant network of people committed to the common good. The conversations has during the week have already sparked new ideas and partnerships that I hope will benefit Million Minutes and, most importantly, the young people we exist to serve.
A huge thank you to the CSAN team for all their work in organising such an important and life-giving conference. I would also like to thank my colleagues who attended for their generosity in sharing and commitment to collaboration working for the good of all our communities.
