Celebrating and Supporting Community Engagement with St. John Brebeuf Parish Leadership
We are excited to update you on our ongoing pilot project with St. John Brebeuf (SJB) Parish. A productive meeting with SJB leadership on January 28 led to a consensus on the newcomer survey questions. While the forecast for a record amount of snow and a few parish-based considerations disrupted our plans for a conjoint February 15-16 launch, SJB leadership pivoted to a soft launch, confirming its valuing of the newcomer survey to the faith community.
For the official launch, ESCC staff was present at SJB’s February 22-23 masses, equipped with laptops and mobile devices to assist parishioners in completing the survey (in English or French) on the premises, organize to do so online or walk away with a paper copy. We then partook in their March 1st St. Patrick’s Day Dinner to further promote demystification (as needed) and participation in the survey.
SJB’s stewardship of the pilot project is exemplary. They set a target of 350 respondents, aiming to engage a substantial proportion of their faith community (vs. 115 parishioners contributing their perspective in 2019-2020) . They proactively promoted it through their parish bulletin and after each weekend mass, progressed to incentivizing peers more specifically, based on the weekly participation tally we offered them, and saw to the reserving of some time within scheduled gatherings for all Group Leaders to guide survey completion. By March 27, the participation rate reached 69% of the target (241 respondents).
The next step focuses on enriching the analysis of our preliminary findings. After meeting with the SJB Leadership about the wealth of quantitative and qualitative data collected through the survey, a gathering with the faith community will be held, providing opportunities for validation and further input. Onwards together in honoring and building the parish-based capacity in helping newcomers navigate life in Quebec and thrive!
Photo credit: Maccy