Marty+McClain

=Digital Discipleship Boot Camp= =Capstone Project Proposal= Establishment of a Parenting Blog for the Faith Community of St. Francis of Assisi Parish The Archdiocese of Cincinnati began an initiative last fall called **//Christ at the Center.//** One of the components of this initiative is **//Strong Catholic Families.//** As a parish staff serving the faith community of St. Francis of Assisi, we have taken this initiative to heart. We have been working hard to develop and enhance our programing to include an emphasis on nurturing strong Catholic families. We recognize that the parents of our parish need support being the first teachers in the faith of their children. We also recognize that the parents of our parish lead very busy lives. Often times these parents do not have the time to find the resources that will help their families grow in its Catholic faith; often times they do not know where to look. This project will be to create and maintain a blog for Catholic parents as a way to stay connected to the Church and their Catholic identity by sharing pertinent and timely parenting and Catholic issues. I will take the responsibility to set up the blog and monitor comments for the first three to six months. Since this blog will be a cooperative effort, other members of the parish staff will share in the contributing, maintaining and monitoring as they increase their blogging knowledge and abilities. The primary audience will be parents of St. Francis of Assisi Parish. Through social media it is hoped that this resource will take hold throughout the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the larger Church.
 * Project Title:**
 * Project Description:**
 * Project Goals:**
 * Create a Blog focused on parenting to help nurture strong Catholic families using WordPress
 * Obtain input for the blog from parish staff as well as from the larger Catholic community (i.e. other blogs, Vatican, USCCB, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Catholic agencies and personalities, Christian and secular parenting sources, etc.)
 * Link the blog to our parish website and various parish Facebook pages
 * Alert parents of new postings via the Sunday bulletin, newsletters, email, etc.
 * Audience:**
 * Projected Timeline**
 * Obtain commitment from parish faith formation staff to maintain and contribute to blog on a weekly basis (Oct. 14, 2013)
 * Create blog (Nov. 1, 2013)
 * Link blog to parish website and various Facebook pages (Nov. 3, 2013)
 * Advertise blog in parish bulletin (Nov. 3, 2013)
 * Email parents of all children registered for the parish’s faith formation programs describing the blog (Nov. 6, 2013)
 * Hold brown-bag training session on blogging for staff members who will be participating in the blog (mid-late November)
 * Technology:**
 * Blog
 * Facebook
 * Parish Website
 * Email

By using resources already available, there will be no cost for creating and maintaining the blog.
 * Projected budget:**

Approval from the pastor has been obtained.
 * Approval:**

__ Note __ : Projects should be carried out in a two-month period following the Proposal deadline. All projects should be completed by November 14, 2013.

Link to Marty McClain Essay Page

Link to Marty McClain Article Page