National Catholic Forester

National Catholic Forester 16 DIOCESAN COMMUNICATION GRANTS National Catholic Society of Foresters recognizes the importance of 'getting the message of our faith' out to all Catholics. We offer seven $1,500 grants each year to dioceses in support of their communication efforts – that's a total of $10,500! Recipients for 2017 are: THE NEW EVANGELIZATION Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado The NCSF Diocesan Communication Grant will help produce and distribute five video memes to motivate and inspire the Catholic faith among young adults and families. The videos will be distributed via social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter. "Although our office is very good at creating a social media presence," wrote the Denver Archdiocese, "we lack the resources to engage Catholic youth on a regular basis. The video memes that we would like to produce would help us create a conversation with our target audience via social media." The NCSF grant will help us secure the financial resources for production. Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas In 2016, the Archdiocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life developed a program called the Joyful Marriage Project. The program offers couples tangible ways to amplify the joy in their relationships through the use of online resources and videos, as well as in-person retreats. The NCSF Diocesan Communication Grant will be used to customize the materials of the Joyful Marriage Project for Spanish-speaking couples. Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington Currently, the Archdiocese of Seattle's website is outdated and unresponsive to mobile devices. As a result, Catholics in western Washington have difficulty using the information collected in their web database to find parishes, Mass times, schools, and other important information that connects them to the life of the church. As a result the Archdiocese of Seattle is creating a new website that will be mobile friendly. The NCSF Diocesan Communication Grant will help fund a web consultant who will work with the Archdiocese of Seattle to update its website – it will be more mobile friendly with designs and architecture that prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Diocese of Gary, Indiana The Gary Diocese utilizes their website (garyoyya.org) almost daily for ministry purposes, however it has become increasingly outdated as technology has advanced. Statistically, youth and young adult ministry web pages rank among the most- accessed of all ministry pages in the Gary Diocese. As a tool of New Evangelization, a modern website will energize and inspire young Catholics who would normally become frustrated CONT. ON PAGE 26

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