Welcome began its life as Christ Renews His Parish in April of 1969. From that first meeting of 28 men, CRHP grew to touch hundreds of thousands of lives—1,400 parishes in 100 dioceses and 40 states. CRHP might be the most effective trigger for parish engagement in the Church today.

We believed a name change and updated design would help Catholic men and women recognize CRHP as more than just a retreat, but the invitation it was meant to be. Bold statements, clean geometry, and a slight sense of humor will guide and delight the reader during this in-depth renewal process—now called Welcome.

Our success hinged on how well we trained our weekend team leaders. That meant that we spent a lot of early attention on revamping the team guide. We wanted to heighten readability, establish clear hierarchy, and ideally, increase user retention. We paid special attention to typographic and navigation systems to make things easy to find—even when flipping.

The next step for Welcome was to create a print-on-demand kit for parish marketing needs. The idea sprang from several pain points expressed by parishes. One, a marketing kit would allow a parish big or small to create some consistent visibility around the retreat experience. And two, customizable collateral would allow teams to express a much-needed personal invitation to join in this meaningful experience.

A key part of the Welcome brand is this sense of invitation. Feeling welcome is a key part of any positive parish experience, but from this simple, human need springs the playful, clear tone. We gave parishes options in how they bring people to the Welcome experience through certain customizable elements. Since a parish likely knows its members better than we do—we gave them space to tell their own stories, on their terms.

An invitation card was designed with lots of empty space for team members to invite others to join in the Welcome experience. This card is a take-away that goes beyond the simple handshake at the end of mass. The  extra personal touch could go a long way in convincing someone the Welcome experience is right for them.

Each kit also comes with a full-size, reusable, dry erase poster to encourage teams to share their Welcome stories with their respective parishes in a big and bold way.

Further, a Welcome team can choose white or green for their marketing materials. Some pieces of the kit also have multiple copy directions depending on who a parish is trying to attract. 

Please learn more about Welcome here.