Here, in concrete terms, is how this project works. Every year, around May, Rodolphe Fior, Deputy Director of Pastoral Care, and Sylvie Chablin, animator, present the project to high school students: they are asked to lead an hour of ASH, in pairs, for their younger schoolmates. This proposal, valid for the following school year, serves to familiarize them with the idea, since many of the kids involved fear they won't be able to prepare for ASH and take classes at the same time, with the risk of doing poorly in school.
But so far, their involvement has not made their grades worsen; if anything, the opposite. Therefore, by June, the young people must give a definitive answer whether to participate, and in September, after the different groups have been organized and entrusted to them, they no longer have the possibility to abandon the project.
At the beginning of the year a team of adults who are very attentive to the young animators and their proposals helps them to establish a path. The animators start from the interests of the young people, from the questions they ask themselves and their observations on life and current events, and the adults are careful to make a connection with faith.
In this way, ASH becomes a time when young people talk to each other and adults placing their full trust in them. Furthermore, every month a moment of coordination is created, which serves to look back on past experiences, difficulties, moments of joy, and to project oneself into future activities.
One day is also dedicated to formation. This organization allows older students to take responsibility, to feel heard and called, to better understand the meaning of this hour of ASH, to develop a taste for relationships and exchange with others.
