WYD Guide Application
WANTED: Faithful, dynamic, Young Adult,
volunteer leaders for WYD Lisbon 2023
JMJyouth is a spirited youth pilgrimage company based in Phoenix, Arizona, that is recognized worldwide as a leader in travel to World Youth Day. We are committed to creating opportunities for individuals to open their hearts to the Grace of God through adventurous and faith-building pilgrimages.
WYD Guides are essential to our mission at JMJyouth, as they allow us to directly interact with each and every one of our pilgrims during the intimate experience of World Youth Day. Our WYD Guides provide spiritual and logistical care that often defines the experience of World Youth Day for our pilgrims and helps to determine the receptivity of each pilgrim to the graces available during those special days. If you feel called to lead young Catholics to a unique, faithful, fruitful encounter with Christ during World Youth Day 2022, we hope that you will apply to join us in Lisbon as a JMJyouth WYD Guide.
If you are local to Portugal, please read more here: JMJyouth.com/Portugal-Guide.
All other potential guides, please continue reading below.
WYD Guides are essential to our mission at JMJyouth, as they allow us to directly interact with each and every one of our pilgrims during the intimate experience of World Youth Day. Our WYD Guides provide spiritual and logistical care that often defines the experience of World Youth Day for our pilgrims and helps to determine the receptivity of each pilgrim to the graces available during those special days. If you feel called to lead young Catholics to a unique, faithful, fruitful encounter with Christ during World Youth Day 2022, we hope that you will apply to join us in Lisbon as a JMJyouth WYD Guide.
If you are local to Portugal, please read more here: JMJyouth.com/Portugal-Guide.
All other potential guides, please continue reading below.
Guide Characteristics
Faithful: JMJyouth WYD Guides must have a love for Jesus, the Catholic Faith, and our Holy Father, as well as a desire to share their Faith with others. The youth on our pilgrimages are looking for confirmation in their faith and can quickly sense when someone in a leadership position is faking enthusiasm.
Knowledgeable: Our WYD Guides have past World Youth Day and foreign travel experience, and they are able to move a group around busy cities. Having attended a previous WYD is critical to understanding the logistical difficulties that will arise.
Capable: You must be a problem solver since group travel is filled with unexpected situations including medical needs, lost WYD passes, lost pilgrims, emergency toilet breaks (and occasionally emergency ice cream breaks). JMJ Youth is looking for leaders who are able to handle stressful situations with grace. At the end of an exciting and difficult week, we want our pilgrims to look back and think, "What was it about our WYD Guide that - through the rain, the crowds, the lines, the lack of food, the cold, the heat, the cranky chaperones, the lack of sleep - s/he never lost his/her joy." We want our pilgrims to experience joy (happiness) as an interior gift from God that is not based on exterior circumstances, and to have their WYD Guide be their greatest example.
Guide Requirements
JMJyouth WYD Guides must be:
Guide Responsibilities
WYD Guides are responsible for a group of approximately 40 to 60 people from their arrival to departure from Lisbon. You will be expected to:
Professional Standards
You do not have to be a licensed guide to lead one of our groups, though we do ask that professional standards be upheld. Given the spiritual responsibilities listed above, some expectations require specific attention.
Interviews & Training:
JMJyouth will review applications to select a pool of potential guides. These candidates will be contacted within two weeks to schedule a phone interview. All applicants will be notified of their selection status by email within two weeks of their interviews.
Formal training will take place on-site in Lisbon from July 24th onward. Lodging will be provided in the city center for all Guides - Portuguese and foreign - to foster a unique fellowship imbued with a spirit of collaboration.
During the training, JMJyouth will walk you through the steps of leading your group. We will discuss in detail how to fulfill your responsibilities and uphold our standards. During the week of WYD, staff will be available in Lisbon to answer any questions and to assist you in managing logistical issues that may arise.
Compensation
WYD Guide positions are strictly voluntary. To thank you for your service, JMJyouth will provide for all of your expenses, including your round-trip flight, WYD registration, meals, lodging, and transportation.
Faithful: JMJyouth WYD Guides must have a love for Jesus, the Catholic Faith, and our Holy Father, as well as a desire to share their Faith with others. The youth on our pilgrimages are looking for confirmation in their faith and can quickly sense when someone in a leadership position is faking enthusiasm.
Knowledgeable: Our WYD Guides have past World Youth Day and foreign travel experience, and they are able to move a group around busy cities. Having attended a previous WYD is critical to understanding the logistical difficulties that will arise.
Capable: You must be a problem solver since group travel is filled with unexpected situations including medical needs, lost WYD passes, lost pilgrims, emergency toilet breaks (and occasionally emergency ice cream breaks). JMJ Youth is looking for leaders who are able to handle stressful situations with grace. At the end of an exciting and difficult week, we want our pilgrims to look back and think, "What was it about our WYD Guide that - through the rain, the crowds, the lines, the lack of food, the cold, the heat, the cranky chaperones, the lack of sleep - s/he never lost his/her joy." We want our pilgrims to experience joy (happiness) as an interior gift from God that is not based on exterior circumstances, and to have their WYD Guide be their greatest example.
Guide Requirements
JMJyouth WYD Guides must be:
- 100% available from July 23rd through August 9th, 2023
- Young adults between 25 and 39 years of age is best, with the maturity to lead youth and their leaders;
- Fluent in English. A second language is helpful but not necessary; and
- A Catholic in good standing with a great desire to impart our Holy Faith to the youth entrusted to you.
Guide Responsibilities
WYD Guides are responsible for a group of approximately 40 to 60 people from their arrival to departure from Lisbon. You will be expected to:
- Orient pilgrims to Lisbon, to the pace of WYD, and to moving as a group through crowds during a walking tour of the city.
- Assist your group in moving from their lodging to the various WYD events. Lodging includes hotels, hostels, and simple lodging (gyms and parish hall floors). You will typically share accommodations with your group.
- Provide joyful, spiritual leadership by giving talks, leading/joining in prayer, and promoting fellowship. Your primary responsibilities are logistical, but your mission is spiritual. Your presence should be gracious and in a spirit of service. You are not asked to force opportunities for grace on your pilgrims, only to assist in creating these opportunities. We also ask that you love the pilgrims that God entrusts to you by making yourself available to your pilgrims should they seek your counsel.
- Offer recommendations to group leaders and pilgrims for enhancing their experience of WYD.
- Collect, compile, and deliver registration kits - together with other guides - before the groups arrive.
- Maintain communication between your assigned group(s) and the JMJyouth office in Lisbon.
- Troubleshoot and resolve logistical issues.
Professional Standards
You do not have to be a licensed guide to lead one of our groups, though we do ask that professional standards be upheld. Given the spiritual responsibilities listed above, some expectations require specific attention.
- You will be working with individual souls, so we ask that you talk to every member of your group and try to know them by name. Larger groups will be more difficult, and we ask that you make the effort. It is easy and tempting to pay more attention to the outgoing members of the group, but we ask that you actively try to draw everyone into the experience.
- You may get to know some group members well. However, dating (or pursuing dating) a pilgrim, leader, or WYD Guide is forbidden during the weeks of training and WYD. Feel free to date, get married, and have a big family after WYD!
- Most American groups forbid drinking alcohol on church-sponsored trips, even for adults of legal age. This must be honored by not providing alcohol to any group members. Some group leaders may wish to invite you for a drink in which case you are welcome to join them.
Interviews & Training:
JMJyouth will review applications to select a pool of potential guides. These candidates will be contacted within two weeks to schedule a phone interview. All applicants will be notified of their selection status by email within two weeks of their interviews.
Formal training will take place on-site in Lisbon from July 24th onward. Lodging will be provided in the city center for all Guides - Portuguese and foreign - to foster a unique fellowship imbued with a spirit of collaboration.
During the training, JMJyouth will walk you through the steps of leading your group. We will discuss in detail how to fulfill your responsibilities and uphold our standards. During the week of WYD, staff will be available in Lisbon to answer any questions and to assist you in managing logistical issues that may arise.
Compensation
WYD Guide positions are strictly voluntary. To thank you for your service, JMJyouth will provide for all of your expenses, including your round-trip flight, WYD registration, meals, lodging, and transportation.