Dear One’s of St. C’s, 

I made an exciting announcement this past Sunday that I want to make sure everyone is aware happened.  We have hired Val Rawlinson to be the Children, Youth, and Family Support Coordinator at St. Columba’s.  After Elaine stepped down from her position as Children, Youth, and Family Director in April, St. Columba’s entered a time of discernment as what would be next for our Children and Youth programs. 

If you recall, we did two listening sessions with the community around what people wanted in this period after Elaine left.  To our surprise and delight people seemed really interested in volunteering more with the children's program and getting more involved, especially with Godly Play.  

So Alissa and I got to thinking that what our community really needs is a consistent person on Sunday mornings to make sure families are being greeted and oriented to the space.  We felt that, ideally, this would be an internal person who knows our community, can support our volunteers, and assist me in visioning and planning our programs.  

I am pleased and excited that Val Rawlinson has agreed to be this person!  Val’s position will mostly be focused on Sunday mornings and our family friendly events.  She will not be taking on the full scope of what was Elaine’s former position.  The current plan is to move me full time in the fall.  I will take on much of the behind the scenes work that Elaine was doing, things like; supervising the nursery staff, keeping an up-to-date database of our children, creating at home faith formation ideas/supplies, and making sure our volunteers are up-to-date on background checks and safeguarding God’s children certificates.  I will also supervise Val and we will work together to vision and plan both the children and youth programming.  I also plan to do more on the grounds work with our youth group as well. 

I am looking forward to spending more dedicated time with our youth as well as working with Val to continue the excellent work that Elaine began here at St. Columba’s.  A huge shout out to Elaine for all the work she did over the years to create such welcoming and warm spaces for our children and youth, as well as excellent materials and resources for our children, youth, and families to strengthen their faith. We are excited to build off of Elaine’s legacy in the weeks and months to come!

with joy, 

Meghan