19 / 32
The Community Leader Awards
2015
19
7
Stephanie Santos:
I felt really honoured.
I’m not too sure who
nominated me, but
thank you whoever you
are. I’m just really excit-
ed to be nominated in
the awards as a Young
Leader of the Year.
2
0
1
7
What do you do in your
community?
I am the South Coast deanery youth co-ordi-
nator which is in the Gold Coast region and I
work to establish youth groups across the Gold
Coast. At the moment I’m looking after four
youth groups and deanery events. But the main
part of my work is training and forming young
people in the community and empowering
them to be leaders and stepping up in their
own parishes so they can take over.
How did you get started?
I started as the youth co-ordinator of Surfers
Paradise Catholic parish in 2014 when I just
worked one day a week. I discovered after six
months of working there that the youth group
Venire at Surfers Paradise was the only youth
group on the Gold Coast, and that didn’t sit
right with me. It was a real discontent that God
wasn’t accessible to more young people across
the Gold Coast so I put in a proposal to the
dean and all the other parish priests and, in
short, it got declined, but a parishioner stepped
forward to fully fund my wage to be able to
be the deanery youth co-ordinator. I’m in my
second year and I have one year to go and it’s
been incredible to be on this journey
What do you love about your job?
The thing I love most about my job is journey-
ing with people – whether it’s young people
that I get to minister to at school and see how
they’re doing in their relationship with God
or training young leaders and journeying with
them and seeing them make an impact and a
difference in their community. It’s definitely my
favourite thing.
Why is your Catholic faith im-
portant to you?
My Catholic faith keeps me grounded and it
gives me a peace and happiness that I just can’t
find anywhere else in the world. It helps me
know the truth and the trust is that I’m loved
and I have a purpose in this world. That’s why
it’s so important to me because it keeps me
steady and it keeps me going every day.
What was your reaction when
you heard you were a finalist for
The Leaders?
I felt really honoured. I’m not too sure who
nominated me but thank you whoever you are.
I’m just really excited to be nominated in the
awards as a young leader of the year.