This weekend – appropriately World Youth Sunday – a Catholic concert in Newham brought hundreds of young people together for a free day of faith, music and celebration at St Antony’s Catholic Church in Forest Gate. The exciting programme featured a mix of celebrities like actor Paterson Joseph and singer Adenike with priests Mgr John Armitage and Fr Paschal Uche, along with performances by gospel choirs, dance troupes and performing arts groups. “Ignite is more than a concert,” says Olivea Ohonmele, the creator of the event (which is in its second year), “it is a fun filled day of prayer, performances and workshops.”
A woman of extraordinary dynamism, Olivea has transformed provision for young Catholics in Newham Deanery since she was appointed as Newham Deanery & Partnerships Youth Coordinator in 2024. An experienced English teacher as well as a catechist at St Antony’s, she was keen to ensure that young people had programmes and projects that would engage them in a Catholic way. “I realised that while a Catholic journey starts with baptism and parents often keep children focused until First Communion or Confirmation, those children often disappear from view after the first or second of those sacraments. You only get a few who are committed. So I wondered how to sew that Catholic ethos into their everyday lives, to make a bond that would keep them constantly in touch with the Church all the way through their young lives.”
She has certainly been successful – one of the biggest delegations at Flame this year came from the Newham Deanery and young people have engaged across a plethora of activities and initiatives. So how has it happened? Says Fr Daniel Kelly, parish priest at St Anne’s and chaplain to the existing Deanery Youth Council: “We had lots of very good people with fantastic ideas but not enough time to turn them into reality. So we decided to recruit a Youth Coordinator at the beginning of 2024, funded through grants from the Diocese, the Sisters of the Holy Cross and donations from the parishes and secondary schools in the Deanery.”
Olivea began with a tuition centre, blending academic tutoring with spiritual mentorship, which she took across the nine churches in the Deanery and also developed general offerings such as a bible study group, lector training and an art appreciation programme. A high-profile journalism scheme has been hugely influential, allowing young people to showcase events and successes across the deanery, encouraging others to become involved. Says Olivea: “One of the biggest things was to get young people to stay and sustain. We needed to provide programmes that maintained connection with young people during the times that they are not involved in sacramental milestones – and make connections between groups.”
She began by focusing on what young people actually need – and what parents would be happy with. “Both said support with learning. With tuition running at £35 an hour or more, anything free was going to be popular. I know a lot of teachers who charge and I asked them if they could donate a voluntary hour to the deanery.”
Another attraction which pulled people in was her scheme to take kids to Oxford University on visits, something that she had initiated while teaching. “I tied that to the free tuition centre at St Anne’s and St Antony’s. And people came.”
She also uses the Lector programme, which encourages a rota of young people to read at Mass in the Deanery, as a learning opportunity, encouraging parents to see it as part of the national curriculum. “It is about speaking and listening, projecting your voice, making eye contact etc. But I also realised that many of the young people did not really understand what they were reading.” She creates SATs-style Maths and English worksheets based on the readings for each Sunday to help.
And it has proved popular, particularly with parents. “We had 10 young readers initially, then 20, then 52 youngsters at the weekly sessions.” She recruits older teenagers who have finished their exams to help in supporting a young person. “Such voluntary work looks good on your CV,” she says.
The journalism programme grew out of the tuition work because she had become aware that a lot of kids at GCSE struggle with articles. It evolved into a way that she could evidence what she was doing with young people. “I asked some of the high-ability students if they would be interested in learning how to write and it built from there.” She made them into a youth-led editorial team, designing a logo, headed paper and an organisation chart. “It was like a company with the young people making the decisions.” Setting up a Deanery newspaper enabled them to gain real-life experience, going out to showcase what was going on in Catholic schools and parishes. “We started with interviews with unsung heroes and student successes, and now have a conveyor belt of things to cover – parishes invite us to cover their events.” Olivea says: “The programme embeds Catholic values through its service-oriented mission. By documenting parish activities and social outreach projects, young journalists deepen their understanding of Catholic social teaching. They amplify community stories through a faith-based lens.” She says the programme not only prepares young Catholics for potential careers in media but also deepens their faith and commitment to living out Gospel values in their daily lives and future professions.
The news articles go to the nine parishes in the deanery. Printing costs have meant that they are no longer hard copies but are distributed using a deanery app, Linktree and an article drive.
In all her 15 initiatives, Olivea has utilised the skills and support of a network of contacts, former colleagues, parish volunteers, old students and the young people themselves, many of whom have learnt how to support others. “Official church photographers have agreed to mentor the young journalists tasked with photography, for example, while a past student currently doing a Masters in Cyber Security has come back to do talks on digital defence – which were very well-received. Student Josef Tan leads the journalists programme and Minerva, an A-level student, leads a popular Christian art appreciation and analysis programme.” She adds: “I have a tier of young people as volunteers so that, while I am always in the background, every project is youth-led. The choir was set up by a young person and our mini-Flame project, Ignite, was organised and run by young people.” The tuition programme, meanwhile, has 193 on its books, both using the service and delivering it as well. And it is not just about supplementing what they are learning in school. The experience gained by the young volunteers is valuable for personal statements and CVs, she adds.
The NDPYC has also launched a campaign to tackle educational poverty which emphasises the importance of community involvement. Says Olivea: “Overcoming educational poverty is not a task for schools alone. It requires the collective efforts of families, policymakers, businesses, and local organisations to create a supportive network around every child.”
Currently half way through her three-year contract, Olivea absolutely loves the work. “It is a job that I was meant to do,” she says. “What I enjoy most is the vision and the creating of it – and then seeing it come to fruition. The Lector project, for example, has become a student-led tutoring programme.” Importantly, Olivea says, the young people feel more connected with their faith – and even see church as cool. “When the priest came out at the Ignite concert, the young people stopped singing and dancing, knelt and made the sign of the cross before the period of adoration. And almost everyone attended Flame – it wasn’t just a youth community connection but a Catholic one. It is a recipe for success.”
She is keen to share the initiatives and resources that have proved so successful with other deaneries and parish partnerships – and feels that the journalists programme could be very useful for schools across the Diocese.
And Fr Daniel? Like Pope Francis, he believes that young people are not only the future of the church but the present. “Without young congregants, the Church cannot sustain itself. Olivea is playing a vital role in engaging the youth, bringing them into the fold and ensuring their participation. Using her expertise and connections she has truly created a community programme ‘with the youth, for the youth’.”
Read more here: Journalists Team initiative
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