Engage and Enrich Consultancy is an initiative that helps Catholic school systems with their approach to supporting families in passing on the Catholic faith in a relevant and engaging way.

Established by Meredith Lemos, a teacher and leader with more than three decades of experience working for Sydney Catholic Schools, Engage and Enrich offers school systems resources and opportunities to evangelise and form families in their community.

From 2010 to 2020, Meredith spearheaded the Family Educator Project in the Archdiocese of Sydney, which sought to re-engage parents and families into the faith and social life of the school and parish.

After a change of direction for two years, Meredith said she knew her passion was for “supporting families in passing on the faith and finding God in the busyness, challenges, and joys of family life”.

“This is my passion, and after leaving it for two years, it really confirmed how much I love the work,” she explained.

“I loved teaching religious education when I became a teacher and then getting into adult faith formation within Catholic schools.

“I believe there's always that little spark of faith in people who enrol their children in a Catholic school, whether they're practicing or not. I just love the whole idea of giving them an opportunity where they can see faith active in their family life.”

In 2024, Meredith began consulting with Catholic Education Wilcannia-Forbes, which had expressed a desire to implement an intentional focus on engagement in the faith.

Engage and Enrich provides the school system with a range of strategies and aids aimed at supporting parents’ faith and strengthening the school community, including:

• Opportunities for parents to come together and pray each week;
• Initiatives for the liturgical seasons and feast days – such as interactive Stations of the Cross for families or resources explaining the communion of saints for All Saints Day;
• Professional development days or workshops with religious education coordinators on authentic parent/family engagement and how to build welcoming communities; and
• Faith-based games or craft activities for celebratory occasions.

“Parents are children's first educators in life and in faith, and the role of the school and the parish is to support them in that,” Meredith said. “I try to give parents opportunities to understand their faith better so they can walk that faith journey with their children.

“It's also that primary evangelisation of people who may not be Catholic, but they've enrolled their children in a Catholic school…  there's always a beautiful opportunity of sharing our faith in a very gentle context.”

Part of Meredith’s consultancy work includes evaluating what a school system is already doing in family faith formation, and whether that work needs to be strengthened or a new, intentional approach needs to be developed.

“I love working with systems of schools and mission identity or religious education directors and leaders to say, ‘What are we doing to explicitly support parents as the first educators of their children in faith? As a school system, what are we doing to support family faith formation and evangelisation?’” she said.

“If we're not supporting our families with faith formation and evangelisation, then who or what is filling that space?”

Chris Kupkee, head of identity and mission at Catholic Education Wilcannia-Forbes, said Engage and Enrich has brought a renewed sense of “warmth, welcome and intentional partnership” to the school communities in the diocese.

“Our hope has been to invite families more deeply into the faith life of the school and parish in ways that genuinely nurture their own relationship with God, while equipping parents and carers with the confidence and practical tools to foster faith within the home,” he explained.

“The initiative has enabled us to move beyond event-based participation toward authentic accompaniment and formation. It recognises families as the first and most influential educators in faith and honours the rich diversity of their stories, cultures and lived realities. In doing so, it reflects a truly relational and mission-focused approach to family evangelisation.”

Since utilising Engage and Enrich in diocesan schools, Chris said families have started rediscovering their identity as domestic churches.

“In our context, Engage and Enrich has not simply increased participation; it has cultivated a culture of encounter, hope and shared responsibility for the faith formation of our children,” he said.

“This deliberate focus is renewing the spiritual life of our school communities and supporting them to become ever more fully what they are called to be… communities of communion, dialogue and mission.”

Meredith said she hopes to spread her family engagement model into more diocesan school systems.

“If any systems are looking for support with either enhancing what they've got or developing a new strategy or approach, I'm very passionate about that and would be very open and honoured to help them with family engagement and family faith formation and evangelisation,” she said.

Engage and Enrich Consultancy can be contacted via email: engageandenrich@gmail.com

Images: Supplied
Words: Matthew Biddle