“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:39
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The Methodist Church Middlesbrough and Eston Circuit |
I thought I should write a few lines to put everyone in the picture about the current status of the Middlesbrough & Eston Methodist Circuit Youth Works Project:
Despite submitting 18 applications in the past 18 months for core funding for the project, we reached the conclusion that we had no option but to scale-down our work. In terms of staffing, we have lost Matt Conant, our full-time youth worker, and we were sorry to see him go after nearly 3 years with the project. He has been a much valued and respected member of the Circuit staff, and his work with the young people has been outstanding.
While we were sorry to lose Matt, our main concern has been the impact on the young people we support.
Over the past year we have worked with 230 young people. Most of these have come along to one of our youth club sessions, where we aim to engage them in purposeful and enjoyable activities, provide premises where they will come to feel safe and at home, and where they can build friendships. But for a significant number of the young people, we have provided more than this: One to one support to those who were experiencing issues such as low confidence, anger management, or lack of motivation; practical support with issues including housing, pregnancy, mental health, or unemployment; signposting to other agencies for specialist support; motivational interviewing, to give young people the opportunity to identify their own issues and the best way for them to move forward so they are able to fulfill their true potential.
Thankfully, we have been successful in achieving funding from BBC Children in Need, which means we are able to continue to provide two youth clubs each week, and we have a dedicated team of sessional youth workers who are able to deliver those sessions. However, we are no longer able to offer the one-to-one support for young people. We will, of course, continue to support them where we can, and signpost them to other agencies for additional help.
So, Youth Works lives on – even if the provision we are offering has been reduced.
In addition, Youth Works has received a very generous donation from Avenue Methodist Church, and this has enabled three things to happen:
A new sessional worker has been appointed to work at the 2 youth clubs;
The Project is still able to contribute to the costs of the Circuit Project Funding & Development Worker, who continues to support the project;
The Project has been able to step-in to help run a youth club at Breckon Hill Community Centre, which was facing closure despite currently supporting about 70 young people each week. To be able to tell them that the generosity of the Methodist people has enabled their youth club to continue was wonderful – I was only the messenger, bringing the good news, but it was truly ‘showing Christian love in action’.
Please continue to pray for the project – the staff, management committee, and the young people who we work with.
While we were sorry to lose Matt, our main concern has been the impact on the young people we support.
Over the past year we have worked with 230 young people. Most of these have come along to one of our youth club sessions, where we aim to engage them in purposeful and enjoyable activities, provide premises where they will come to feel safe and at home, and where they can build friendships. But for a significant number of the young people, we have provided more than this: One to one support to those who were experiencing issues such as low confidence, anger management, or lack of motivation; practical support with issues including housing, pregnancy, mental health, or unemployment; signposting to other agencies for specialist support; motivational interviewing, to give young people the opportunity to identify their own issues and the best way for them to move forward so they are able to fulfill their true potential.
Thankfully, we have been successful in achieving funding from BBC Children in Need, which means we are able to continue to provide two youth clubs each week, and we have a dedicated team of sessional youth workers who are able to deliver those sessions. However, we are no longer able to offer the one-to-one support for young people. We will, of course, continue to support them where we can, and signpost them to other agencies for additional help.
So, Youth Works lives on – even if the provision we are offering has been reduced.
In addition, Youth Works has received a very generous donation from Avenue Methodist Church, and this has enabled three things to happen:
A new sessional worker has been appointed to work at the 2 youth clubs;
The Project is still able to contribute to the costs of the Circuit Project Funding & Development Worker, who continues to support the project;
The Project has been able to step-in to help run a youth club at Breckon Hill Community Centre, which was facing closure despite currently supporting about 70 young people each week. To be able to tell them that the generosity of the Methodist people has enabled their youth club to continue was wonderful – I was only the messenger, bringing the good news, but it was truly ‘showing Christian love in action’.
Please continue to pray for the project – the staff, management committee, and the young people who we work with.
Julie Chapman
To misquote Mark Twain
