Best Practices: Leadership

Program Model: L.E.A.P. Retreat, Catholic Leadership Institute

Overview of the program

LEAP, Leaders Experiential Adventure Program, is a powerful 2 1/2 day retreat designed to help adults discern their mission in life and develop the confidence and courage necessary to answer the call to lead.

Participants leave the program with:

• A better understanding of their gifts and their potential
• A written personal mission statement
• Increased trust in God, themselves, and others
• Strategies to help them choose growth over fear in faith and life
• A support network to encourage them after the program ends

The LEAP retreat combines outdoor adventure activities with indoor reflections, discussions, prayer services and Sacraments.

How does the program work in your archdiocese?

The program is coordinated and staffed by the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI), a non-profit lay association of the faithful headquartered in Philadelphia. CLI runs the program for priests and seminarians, parish and diocesan teams, for apostolate staff and volunteers, and for college students and Young Adult Ministry teams.

The Office for Youth and Young Adults refers Young Adult Ministry core team members to CLI for training and twice a year co-sponsors an open LEAP retreat for all interested individuals. For the open programs, our office provides marketing support and recruits young adult attendees. CLI handles the rest.

Why does the program work?

Several factors contribute to the success of LEAP over the past 11 years in Philadelphia:

• Focus on the Individual's calling – the program is based on the assumption that each individual is created perfectly for the purpose for which they were created. Many adults are looking for clarity of purpose in their lives and LEAP helps individuals find this.
• Program design – LEAP was originally designed for Fortune 500 Executives. The sequencing of activities and content of the material are world-class. Working in conjunction with LEAP design team, CLI took the model and incorporated Catholic teachings and the sacraments. The result is a world-class leadership retreat.
• Marketing – LEAP appeals to two main segments of the young adult population:
  • Involved young adults – those active in Young Adult Ministry who are looking to step up into a leadership role and would like the skills and confidence to do so.
  • Non-involved young adults looking to advance their careers – many lapsed or inactive Catholics attend LEAP looking for the leadership training to advance their careers. The spiritual component is secondary when they arrive, but invariably the Lord moves them during the program and they come back to the Church and become active members of their faith communities. It's been a very effective evangelization tool in that regard.
• Diocesan Support – LEAP is a requirement for all members of the Young Adult Ministry core team. That model has been replicated at many of the parish and college based ministries.
• Evident Results – LEAP graduates are transformed and assume roles of leadership in their families, workplaces, communities, and the Church. When people see the alumni list and the great works they are doing, and hear that LEAP contributed to their success, others have confidence that the program can make a difference in their life.

What needs does it address for young adults?

Young adults need clarity of purpose and mission in life – as do all adults. A LEAP retreat fulfills that need. Whether it is a college student discerning a course of study, a young adult re-evaluating career choices at the "quarter-life" crisis, or a young adult facing a vocation choice (to single life, married life, or religious life), a LEAP retreat will help the young adult align their compass with God's plan and calling for their life.

Young adults are also looking for a community and a sense of belonging. LEAP gives them the courage and confidence to become active contributing members of a faith community – a parish, a campus ministry, or a Young Adult Ministry. LEAP graduates realize they are no longer "dependent" young people, but are adults who can and must fulfill a leadership role in the Church and in the world.

What elements are crucial?

• The Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, along with the prayer services are what distinguish this retreat from a corporate training program.
• The adventure program on a ropes course is critical to the program success. Individuals are given the opportunity to physically encounter fear and challenges on the ropes and inevitably do more than they thought they could at the beginning of the program. That experience can be stored in the emotional databank and drawn upon when facing the normal challenges of everyday life. Graduates know they can do much more if they trust in God, others, and themselves, because they have physically experienced it on the ropes.
• The process to develop a written personal mission statement is critical. Having a statement on paper when they leave is an invaluable tool to guide decisions for the rest of their lives.

Who to contact for more information

Please feel free to contact the Office for Youth and Young Adults at 610-649-9476 or phillyyam@hotmail.com. Also, feel free to contact CLI directly care of Alain Oliver, Program Coordinator for the Catholic Leadership Institute, 610-306-9472 or info@catholicleaders.org or visit www.CatholicLeaders.org.

Resources to help start this elsewhere

Catholic Leadership Institute is headquartered in Philadelphia, but has sent facilitators across the nation to deliver programs. CLI has a national network of ropes course contacts and can coordinate a program with a retreat house in most dioceses. The LEAP weekend is the place to start in building your ministry team, but CLI also offers training programs in many areas such as communication, time and stress management, high-performing teams, conflict resolution, and organizational vision and planning.

Final note to the bishops

Over 5,000 adults have graduated from the Catholic Leadership Institute in eleven years of operation in Philadelphia. Over 70% of those graduates are "young" adults. Young adult ministry in Philadelphia is thriving at the diocesan, parish, and campus level, and a big part of that success is do the training leaders receive from the Catholic Leadership Institute. In fact, I would not be serving as Coordinator of Young Adult Ministry as a 26-year-old female, if it were not for my LEAP experience in 1999. CLI is a perfect partner as one of our seven elements of a comprehensive ministry effort and I would recommend it to any diocese.

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