Skip to content
Caritas Social Action Network Logo and Home link
  • Home

  • About Us
  • Our Members

    Our Members


    • In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. Pope Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens (1971), n.23.
      • All Members A-Z
      • Map of Members
      • Stories
  • News
  • Get Involved
  • Jubilee 2025
  • ☰
  • Homepage
  • >
  • News
  • >
  • News from CSAN
  • >
  • Aspiring Leaders – Residential Three

Aspiring Leaders – Residential Three

31st October 202431st October 2024

From 21 to 23 October, the second cohort of our aspiring leaders course met for their third residential at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine in east London, our home from home for the course.

We were joined by some wonderful speakers who led us through a range of reflections, from trauma-informed leadership, the importance of developing youth leadership, to an introduction to Appreciative Inquiry research methods.

Claire Wilson, a trauma therapist and author (who also plays with Jo Boyce and CJM!) and Nikki Dhillon, also a therapist who works with Safe in Faith at Caritas Westminster, introduced us to the workings of the nervous system and our deep need to be safe and to belong. The implications of this for leadership were explored in some depth, especially what is happening to us and the effect we might be having on others when we are in a ‘hot’ or ‘cool’ state.

Rebecca Rathbone from Caritas Internationalis led an inspiring session of her work on developing youth leadership. So much of the Church’s wisdom, from the saints and indeed from Jesus himself, comes from young people. We were all challenged to look deeper into our own organisational cultures and consider some actions to promote the participation of youth.

Clare Watkins, from Roehampton University, led us into a consideration of the research method known as Appreciative Inquiry. This method is promoted by Caritas Europa, so it’s good for us to align with that. The AI approach sits well with our values since it begins by inviting us to discover the joy, the good news of what’s going on in our organisations and then dream of what might be possible to develop the strengths and design ways to make it happen. Participants were invited to undertake their own Appreciative Inquiry projects in their own settings.

The scenario on the final morning took the participants into a situation which is becoming all too real for Catholic organisations: a role play in which a senior team worked through the tensions of some in the charity wanting to downplay their Catholic identity in the hope of broadening their appeal. Many important points emerged, not least a deepening self-awareness of how we act and react in such situations.

The common thread running through all our sessions was how to create and sustain a healthy organisation. We paid attention to the personal and spiritual dimension of this with an invitation to all the participants to begin the day with Lectio Divina and end the day with an Examen, discerning in stillness where God was at work in us over the course of our time together.

In our final residential next March, also at St Katherine’s, we will invite the participants to present to the group, either on their AI research project or on what they have learned in the course of the programme. I’m looking forward to the wisdom that will be shared. It has been a joy to work with such committed and friendly people. A real bond has developed in the group. We will be looking next at life beyond the programme, how do we create a community of practice into the future?

If you’d like to find out more about the programme or think you might be interested in applying for Cohort 3, please contact me at raymond.friel@csan.org.uk

Raymond Friel
CEO, Caritas Social Action Network

News
News from CSAN
Catholic Charity Conference 2025: New Hope in a Jubilee Year
4th June 20254th June 2025
Read more
News
Domestic Violence
|
News from CSAN
CSAN Domestic Abuse Alliance: Gender Justice in the Church
22nd May 202522nd May 2025
Read more
News
News from CSAN
The Oscar Romero Award Trust Joins Caritas Social Action Network
30th April 202530th April 2025
Read more
Event
Catholic Social Teaching
25th Anniversary Study Day on 1996 Common Good document
26 January 2022, 11:00-19:00hrs
CSAN England and Wales Caritas Catholic social action Read more
Event
Catholic Social Teaching
|
Community Development
Social Mission of the Church in a post-Covid Society
23 September 2021, 18:00-19:00hrs
CSAN England and Wales Caritas Catholic social action Read more
Advocacy
News from CSAN
Advocacy – Introduction and CSAN priorities
31st December 20203rd February 2022
CSAN England and Wales Caritas Catholic social action Read more

Post navigation

Modern Slavery On Our Doorstep
World Day of the Poor 2024 – Prayer Resource

Subscribe for updates!

* indicates required

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking above to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.

Contact Us

Romero House
55 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JB
UK
Telephone: 020 7870 2210
Email: raymond.friel@csan.org.uk

Our Archives

  • Our network
  • Contact Us

© Caritas Social Action Network 2016. All rights reserved.
Registered charity number: 01101431
Company limited by guarantee, number: 4505111.

Web programming and database design by EmmsIT

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok