Church - 22430 Michigan Avenue Dearborn, MI 48124 313-278-5555
School - 22513 Garrison Dearborn, MI 48124 313-561-9192
Sacred Heart Youth and Young Adult Ministry provides a variety of experiences for middle school youth in grades 6-8, to continue to live their faith and to grow in their relationships with God and one another. We are called J.A.M.S., Jesus and Middle School Students, and we provide social, service, and spiritual events for middle school youth in which to participate. We are part of the Vicariate Catholic Youth Trek (CYT) group of parishes. CYT events are held monthly and this year will include the VERY POPULAR "Halloween Extravaganza at Three Cedars Farms" (Oct.), Las Posadas Progressive Dinner and Refugee Service Project (Dec.), Kids Against Hunger Lenten Service Project (Feb. or Mar.), a social event in March and Walk for Water or Wash 4 Life Pro-Life Car Wash (April). We participate in many Christian Service opportunities throughout the year as well (see Christian Service).
Our annual “Homeless Night In A Box” overnight service experience took place on Friday night, April 27th into Saturday morning, April 28th. 30 youth from Sacred Heart and St. Sebastian Parishes participated in this retreat, in which the youth participants become aware of the plight of homeless teens and young adults in our community by experiencing a night of being homeless. The youth have to set up their “box homes” on Sacred Heart grounds where they will sleep in during the night; clients from Covenant House come and speak to all on the topic of homelessness from first-hand experience; they learn about the mission of Covenant House; over 100 cans of food was donated to the St. Sebastian food pantry by our participants; and kind people from parish dropped by their outside space with hot soup and sandwiches. The weather this year was a little better than last year but we had a steady rain from 1 AM to 6 AM and temperatures down to 41. The following morning they were awoken early to take down their box homes, given a light breakfast snack, and shared a “takeaway” during closing prayer. The Gospel of Luke reminds them “to help us be compassionate instead of judgmental; to be generous instead of selfish; to be respectful of our homeless brothers and sisters, and to be grateful for all that we have been given.”
Individual class retreats are held throughout the school year for our youth in grades 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th. Each of these retreats has a specific theme, such as "What It Means to be Great", "Discipleship", "Justice and Service", and preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation.
We also attend youth conferences such as the CYO W.I.N.D. (Walking in New Directions) Youth Conference held at an area parish on the second Saturday in November. SEE PHOTO ALBUM FORM 2017 HELD AT SACRED HEART. 2018 conference host will be St. Mary's Church in Port Huron. More information and registration information on W.I.N.D. 2018 will be forthcoming in the Fall.