ST. MARGARET MARY CATHOLIC CHURHC – BRONX (GHANA COMMUNITY)

Before I proceed, I would like to render my sincere gratitude to you for having deemed it fit to invite me to deliver this talk on this very important topic. I believe that this delivery would stimulate a brainstorming session and a change of attitude for us to realize further our individual roles in terms of empowering the young people to live as Disciples of Christ in our world today.

It would just be proper for me to throw more light on the key words of this topic:

YOUNG PERSON

Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood (maturity). Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual’s actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals exist at all ages.

Around the world the terms “youth”, “adolescent,” “teenager” and “young person” are interchanged, often meaning the same thing, occasionally differentiated. Youth generally refers to a time of life that is neither childhood nor adulthood, but rather somewhere in-between. Youth also identifies a particular mindset of attitude, as in “He is very youthful”. The term youth is also related to being young.

- Commonwealth Secretariat, young people 15-29years

- UN General Assembly - persons between the ages of 15- 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by member states. This definition was made during the preparation for the international youth year (1985), and endorsed by the General Assembly- resolution 36/28, 1981.

- World Bank: time in a person’s life between childhood and adulthood. The term youth in general refers to those who are between the ages of 15- 25.

- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: a person under 21 years of age.

- The condition or quality of being young.

EMPOWERMENT

It refers to increasing the spiritual, (political, social or economic) strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities. Empowerment is the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the learner to enable them to control and develop their own learning. It is a process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one’s own destiny.

PROCESS OF EMPOWERMENT

It is the process which enables individuals/groups to fully access personal/collective power, authority and influence, and to employ that strength when engaging with other people, institutions or society.

In other words, empowerment is not giving people power; people already have plenty of power in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation to do their job magnificently. It encourages people to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow them to overcome obstacles in life or work environment and ultimately, help them develop within themselves or in the society.

Empowerment includes the following, or similar, capabilities:

- The ability to make decisions about personal/collective circumstances

- The ability to access information and resources for decision making

- Ability to consider a range of options from which to choose (not just yes/no, either/or)

- Having positive thinking about the ability to make change

- Ability to learn and access skills for improving personal collective circumstance

- Ability to inform others perception through exchange, education and engagement

- Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending

- Increasing one’s positive self-image and overcoming stigma

- Increasing one’s ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong

SITUATION OF THE WORLD

In the contemporary world, the young person often has to develop his /her assignment in very difficult situations that can be reassumed in two categories. First, is the situation of secularization that produces an indifferentism towards the things of God? The form of civilization, which is called scientific, technical, industrial, diverts the attention of man from divine matters and makes their inner concern with regard to religion dark difficult. For more than few, God is perceived as less present, less necessary, and less valid to give an explanation to the personal and social life: from this state of things a religious crisis rises easily.

Many baptized have gone away or estranged from the religion to profess a certain indifferentism and even atheism. Again, many of our contemporaries do not perceive at all or expressly reject the intimate and vital bond with God. Young people today are threatened by the evil of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.

It is often said that nowadays the present century thirsts for authenticity. Especially in regard to young people, it is said that they have a horror of the artificial or false and that they are searching above all for the truth and honesty. The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching. Precisely because of this we are, to a certain extent, responsible for the progress of the Gospel that we proclaim.

These signs of the times are truly a challenge for the young people in the life of the Church and society today.