Building Catholic educators designed to sustain schools is an important part of lay leadership training in our church today. Cardinal Stritch University’s Saint Clare Center for Catholic Life has partnered with four local colleges and universities and the Milwaukee Archdiocese to establish the School, Theology, and Faith Formation (STAFF) program, designed to deliver formation and training to K-12 Catholic school teams who wish to grow in faith and understanding of their calling to “teach as Jesus did”.

Participants learn how to effectively develop a yearlong plan of adult formation for their school community. Teams are trained and formed to work with the spiritual needs of colleagues and the ongoing need for Catholic schools to foster healthy and informed Christian communities of educators. Catholic education is an important ministry of the church. Our schools, during the last 40 years, were staffed primarily by religious sisters, brothers and priests and are now largely staffed by laity. Catholic higher education is committed to being a formational resource to K-12 lay faculty as they strive to understand their work as ministry.

The Saint Clare Center is a valuable resource to the Catholic community. They have programs for Catholic school teachers and parish catechists, thus providing adult faith formation and formal ministry training to lay Catholics. Grants from The Catholic Community Foundation make it possible for committed and faithful individuals to get the training they need to be the lay leaders of the church as we move forward.