NeXt Level is a year long immersive program that invites youth to discover their gifts and passions in order to create and implement parish-wide passion projects rooted in the Catholic tradition of service and justice. Youth Delegates from 5 parishes in NJ were selected to participate in NeXt Level, a program funded by the Lilly Endowment, which offers a new approach to youth ministry designed to strengthen Catholic parishes.
NeXt Level provides youth with a series of social gatherings, interactive retreats, and a weeklong overnight service immersion experience that will allow you to grow as a leader, explore their faith, and pursue service and social justice. In their community, youth will implement a project designed by their cohort of youth delegates that will engage members of their parish across generations. Youth will be supported through all of this by adult mentors, parish staff, and NeXt Level staff.
Youth participation in NeXt Level is invaluable to their parishes, and to the church at large! As Pope Francis said at World Youth Day in Panama, “Dear young people, you are not the future but the now of God.”