Answers to your Questions

WHAT DO THE LETTERS "S P R E D" STAND FOR?

The letters SPRED stand for SPecial REligious Development

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF SPRED?

The goal of SPRED is to assist people in parish churches to integrate persons with a learning disability into parish life and worship through the process of education in faith.

IS THERE A REAL NEED FOR THIS SERVICE?

Apart from SPRED, there is nowhere in the whole of Britain that offers a qualification in Religious Education for learning disabled people. This means that pastoral carers in our churches are not always aware of how to welcome those in our communities who have a learning disability, autism, cerebral palsy or severe epilepsy. Their giftedness often remains unknown.

WHAT MEANS DO WE USE TO REACH OUR GOAL?

We raise awareness in our local churches of the needs of learning disabled people. We show them how SPRED can assist them in responding to their needs.
We provide materials for catechesis.
We provide opportunities for observation as a learning tool and for helping parish leaders, families, prospective volunteers and others.
We provide training courses. Training can be taken at different levels; initial, on-going. leadership, area co-ordination, Diploma.
We provide a monthly publication, a reflection on the experience of ministry in SPRED.
We support volunteers with annual on-going training.
We support the process of integration into the parish community with Liturgy/Mime Workshops three times a year.
We support those in leadership roles with specialised training on an on-going basis.
We support all catechists with an annual reflection paper to help deepen the experience of catechesis.
We provide SPRED Family masses at the parish where the SPRED Training Centre is established as a way of modelling for parish leaders, catechists and families the inclusion into worship of learning disabled people.
The SPRED staff is involved in on-going research, participating in international SPRED Conferences every third year.

WHAT DO WE ASK OF EACH PARISH?

We ask each parish to take responsibility for the religious development of its members with disabilities.
We ask each parish priest/priests in a deanery to offer a place where the SPRED group can meet that is conducive to the process of catechesis.
We raise awareness that the parish community is responsible for finding volunteers to welcome its learning disabled members.
We raise awareness that learning disabled people can be fruitfully involved in other groups in the parish such as the choir, flower arrangement, social group.

WHAT DOES A SPRED GROUP LOOK LIKE?

There are usually 8 volunteer catechists in a SPRED group. One person is the link with the parish; one is the leader catechist and one is the activity catechist. The others are known as helper catechists and work on a one-to-one relationship with a learning disabled person. This group of adults welcomes 6 learning disabled people. Learning Disabled people are grouped according to chronological age:

6-10 is the children's group
11-16 is the teenagers group
17-21 is the group for young adults
22+ is the adult group