The Salesian Pastoral Youth Service (SPYS), late in 2008, will be celebrating its 13th Anniversary. Although so much of a young organization SPYS has acquired a lot of experience through these years.   Back in 1995, a Salesian and a small group of youth leaders engaged in this project that would eventually see SPYS growing further into what it is today.   The philosophy behind the group was and has remained “the holistic formation of young people” through the philosophy and working-style of St John Bosco and the teachings of the Gospel.   SPYS started its work from a local area to a national level and for the last 7 years on an international basis.  In 2002, SPYS won a national recognition prize for its work with youths in the Maltese society.

The work of SPYS can be split into five main areas which are:

1. In-group activities: One of the philosophies within SPYS is that no body can give formation to others if he or she is not well formed. So in-group activities are organized in order to strengthen the group’s bonds, and give formation to the members so that they will be able to work with others
2. Youth Seminars: The themes making up these seminars are what one might put into the set of “Life Skills”. Topics range from Leadership, to Teamwork, to more reflexive and also sports seminars. Some of these seminars are also recognized as academic credits at the University of Malta. The standard, needless say, is a very professional one but which involves not lecturing but active participation from those present at each seminar. This through workshops, games and discussions, as well as a pinch of spirituality too.
3. Out-reaching activities: These activities generally take the form of: social gatherings, meetings for youth centres and other groups, religious activities (animation of Holy Mass and prayer sessions), sports activities and purely social activities.   An interesting sub-section spurting from SPYS is the concept of SPYS & Friends, wherein youths who were previously involved in any SPYS activity have now organized activities specifically for them and whoever wants to join them. This in order to maintain contact with them, and progressing towards their holistic formation.
4. Adult training seminars:  These are seminars which very often a foreign guest is invited to conduct, and are generally of a higher-level topic. These are often targeted to social workers, teachers, youth workers and animators. These seminars are also recognized by the University of Malta as academic credits.
5. International activities: Since 2000 SPYS has become more and more active on international level.  We started with participating in the Eurotreff meetings in Vienna (2000-2003) and a youth exchange in Malta (2002).  2003 was for SPYS a year which would see its international involvement evolve. SPYS was acknowledged to become a member of the Don Bosco Youth Network (DBYN). This led to SPYS being involved in not only one international activity per year, but sometimes even three or four…or more: training courses, EVS, group voluntary service, youth exchanges, ...  Since 2006 we have create an international office as part of SPYS, called SPYS.int.  SPYS.int coordinates all international activities for SPYS.