Group Leader
Group leaders are a key part of our Steubenville Atlantic team!
From an administrative standpoint, leading up to the conference, a group leader takes responsibility for registering the group online, purchasing the correct number of spots, ensuring all payments are received on time, organizing chaperones, and other group administration. During the conference, group leaders serve as chaperones for the group, overseeing the group in general as necessary.
From a pastoral perspective, group leaders are the key connection back to the home parish or diocese. Conference weekends are fantastic experiences but your presence and relationship throughout the course of the year is more important than anything a speaker says on stage.
Chaperone
Chaperones help us to ensure a safe environment at the conference. Steubenville Atlantic abides by the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth's Responsible Ministry and Safe Environment Policy (RMSEP). This policy requires one chaperone for every five youth attending. Chaperones must be the same gender as youth to accommodate supervision in residences.
As a chaperone, you will attend the conference and all sessions with your group. You will be responsible for supervising your youth at all times, but also for facilitating small group conversations and helping the youth get the most out of the conference talks and sessions.
During the weekend, chaperones have more one on one time with the youth than any of the conference speakers or musicians. Therefore, the chaperone role is more than just babysitting – it's an opportunity to introduce young people to Jesus and our faith in an approachable, compelling way.
Peer Leader
Peer leaders are young adults aged 18-21 – basically, those who are too old to be participants but still too young to be chaperones. Peer leaders attend with a group and are expected to take on some leadership roles (at their group leader’s discretion). These roles can include things like leading (or assisting with) a small group, being a bus captain when travelling to and from the conference, helping with paperwork and organization in advance of the conference, etc. The important thing is that peer leaders are not just coming back as youth participants again – this role is intended to help young adults learn new skills and encourage them to step up to leadership in the faith.
Youth
The Steubenville Atlantic conference is open to high school students aged 14-18 (generally, those entering grade nine in the coming school year and this year's high school graduates). The content of the talks, small groups, and other activities are specifically geared towards highs school aged teens, which is why it is really important that we stick to these age restrictions. Each Youth Participant must register with a group in order to attend the conference.
