ISABEL “CHABE” VINENT GRIMANY, PHD
Areas of expertise:
Popular Education & Feminist Popular Education
Organizational Capacity
Workshop: Exploring Youth-led Organizing Models to Renew the Church
How do we make space for youth and young adults not just to participate—but to lead—in the life of the Church? This workshop focuses on two youth ministry organizing models (PASCUA JUVENIL, a practical popular education process and Investigación del Mundo Juvenil, a research process lead by youth about their own world) to recruit, form, and accompany young people into active leadership within parish ministries, especially those rooted in justice and service. We’ll explore ways to create welcoming, meaningful, and mission-driven spaces where young Catholics feel seen, heard, and empowered implementing first a youth lead research process and then a youth lead curriculum development process for, with and by the youth to engage other youth in their neighborhoods.
Participants will reflect on the unique gifts young people bring, examine barriers to engagement, and learn how to build authentic relationships that lead to long-term involvement, using these two organizing models to engage them. Grounded in Catholic social teaching and in Popular Education and inspired by the energy of youth, this session offers tools for cultivating leadership that is rooted in faith and responsive to the needs of our world.
Bio:
Chabe was born in Honduras and has lived in the U.S. periodically since 1983. She earned her B.S. in Social Work from Florida International University in Miami. He earned his Ph.D. Doctor in Education from the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Isabel has a Doctorate in Education assigned to the Women's Studies program. Her doctoral thesis focused on Feminist Popular Education and its application in legal training and development projects. Her interests and areas of specialization include: popular education, gender training, social research, and evaluation and diagnosis of social projects. Isabel is co-founder of "La Tapizca" in Honduras and now Popular Education Consultants in the United States that evaluates progressive social organizations in terms of educational and organizational capacity development processes. Isabel is also deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), the state immigrant organization that coordinates most of the efforts in Florida to bring justice to the immigrant community across the state.
