Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

Contact Us

siLENT for Million Minutes

Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School will be creating 20,000 minutes of silence for voiceless young people this Lent, in solidarity with the Catholic national youth charity Million Minutes.

Million Minutes was founded in 2011. It raises money and supports youth action and advocacy activities that give voice and support to young people to transform their lives and their world, inspired by their Catholic Social Teaching values. It supports young people making a difference through participation in society, assuming responsibility and development as young leaders. It works alongside other organisations, including For Jimmy, the Cardinal Hume Centre, and the Young Christian Workers. Its champions include TV chef Delia Smith, Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB and Margaret Mizen OBE.

Million Minutes Lenten campaign - siLENT - is based on the simple idea that if 694 people were to stay silent for 24 hours, they will have created a million minutes of deafening silence. Their silence represents those young people who are often seen and not listened to, those that get shut out of decision-making, stereotyped, and those that are scapegoated for society’s problems.

In Lent 2019 Cardinal Vaughan alongside other individuals, schools, parishes and communities are standing in solidarity with Million Minutes by creating 20,000 minutes of silence between the 6th March to the 20th April 2019. Each minute is sponsored to raise money for social action projects which support young people across the country.

How your silence will make a difference:

Amy always wanted to show people who she was, but she wasn’t able to. Instead, growing up as a young person with a disability, she was often judged and bullied. Now that is changing. Million Minutes’ is working with For Jimmy to give Amy her voice. Our help enables her to use her experience of being rejected and bullied to support other young people living with disabilities.  

Money raised from siLENT is supporting Amy to work with other young people and to reduce the stigma of the label `disabled`. She explains: “I refuse to call myself disabled because that word means you are not able. I want to support young people who have disabilities to understand we can do anything we set our mind too.”

For Jimmy is the charity set up in Jimmy Mizen’s name. In 2008, Jimmy was killed in a violent attack and still, every year, hundreds of teenagers are killed or injured by broken bottles, guns and knives. It doesn’t have to be this way. Million Minutes is working with For Jimmy supporting young people like Amy to stay safe and to build the communities they want to live in – communities of peace where young people are valued and belong.

Cardinal Vaughn’s silence over the four weeks of Lent will support young people like Amy to change their lives and their world.

Please support the school in this endeavor: https://bit.ly/2EhItxA

Thank you for your support.

For more information please visit: http://millionminutes.org/silent