Socktober Challenge
The Socktober Challenge is one of the key components of the Socktober program. Made up of six modules, called Mission Packs, the Socktober Challenge takes young people on a journey in mission, bearing witness to stories of their brothers and sisters who they are supporting by participating in Socktober.
Each of our comprehensive Mission Packs have been created by an expert team of qualified educators, and feature resources, prayers and activities designed to engage students' heads, hearts and hands in issues of mission and social justice. The Socktober Challenge is filled with a range of activities for primary and secondary level, and your students can seek sponsorship through their individual Socktober pages for the goals they achieve.
Browse our Socktober Challenge Mission Packs below and choose your journey using our Socktober Road Map.
What's included in the packs?
Each Mission Pack includes a suite of activities and resources suitable for primary and secondary students to connect them with the theme of that module. In addition, our team has also embedded several components into the Mission Packs to draw together key curriculum areas.
Head, Heart, Hands
The Socktober program utilises the Head, Heart, Hands framework to help students think deeply about why they are participating and raising funds for missionary works.
Through the rich resources and learning pathways developed for Socktober by Catholic Mission, students first get their heads around the reality of children in developing countries.
Our 360 virtual reality experiences, first-hand storytelling from partners, and formation activities throughout Socktober fill students’ hearts with love and compassion for the people we are supporting.
This compels us to use our hands to take action. We pray, advocate for and financially support children in need, in whatever way we can.
Catholic Social Teaching
Each Mission Pack recognises applicable Catholic Social Teachings that relate to the theme and the activities within. Socktober draws on Human Dignity, Solidarity, Common Good, Preferential Option for the Poor, Stewardship of Creation, Promotion of Peace, and Participation and Subsidiarity among others.
Combinations of these CSTs can be found in all Mission Packs, and teachers are invited to work with students to identify the links between them, the stories and activities of the pack, and the Sustainable Development Goals also included.
Sustainable Development Goals
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN in 2015, are an urgent call to action for all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
SDGs are included in each Mission Pack to encourage students to think about how our call to mission is one shared by people of all faiths, ethnicities, genders and backgrounds.
Sport at the Service of Humanity
In an age where the focus seems increasingly to be on the final outcome rather than the journey, Sport at the Service of Humanity is a reminder of what really matters in life: Compassion. Respect. Love. Enlightenment. Balance. Joy.
Sport at the Service of Humanity, an initiative started by Pope Francis in 2015, provides an opportunity to combine the emotion of faith and sport into a powerful force that can make a real difference to our world. Its six principles, listed above, are found throughout the Mission Packs, a metaphor for how they are intertwined in sport and life.
Choose your own journey
With our Socktober Road Map, you can choose which journey best suits you. To get the most out of Socktober, we recommend integrating activities and teachings from all six Socktober Challenge Mission Packs into your school’s mission journey. The modules cater to a wide variety of curriculum areas, including religion and mission, history, geography, and of course physical education. There are many ways you can integrate Socktober into all facets of school life. You could even team up with other teachers to plan how to link activities together.
Using all six Mission Packs may seem overwhelming, so we’ve developed a roadmap to help you choose your own adventure, depending on your circumstances.
