St. Bonaventure Parish hosted ELEVATE, the Office of Catholic Youth's annual youth ministry training event on the weekend of Sept. 13 to 14. Representatives from 62 parishes gathered to be trained and formed more deeply in their roles to journey with and disciple the younger generation across the Archdiocese of Toronto.

A total of 208 adult participants gathered on the Saturday and over 240 high school aged young people were present on Sunday. Workshops were led by various priests and seasoned youth ministry veterans from across the Archdiocese, sharing their first-hand experiences with a new generation of youth ministry leaders.

Michael Chiasson from Access52 Ministries, an organization that helps motivate, challenge and inspire listeners through its talks, and Stacey Leitmann from Hopestone, a Catholic lay ministry that provides sacramental preparation, retreats, conferences and summer camps, were the keynotes providing inspiration and encouragement both days.

This was the third straight year whereby more parishes and more participants filled the event, showing the growth and need of youth ministry throughout the archdiocese.

For more than 10 years now, the OCY has rolled out two days of training to help adult and teen leaders not only get the fundamental training to run youth ministry at their parishes, but continue to go deeper in keeping experienced leaders up-to-date with trends and topics relevant to working with high school youth and older elementary kids. Parishes looking for guidance or help in establishing a parish youth ministry can contact the Office of Catholic Youth at youth@archtoronto.org or call 416-599-7676.