Emerge
Youth Cafe.
Our Youth Cafe has been going for 18 months now and has an attendance of 18 young people, with average attendance on Monday of 10 and on Wednesday of 5. It is essentially a drop-in group and young people often introduce new friends. Its aims are to provide a safe, free and welcoming place for young people to come in after school, when often no adults are at home. We offer them toast and hot drinks which they are encouraged to make and wash up after themselves. We provide sports, arts, and cookery and discussion activities, with no obligation to participate. There is also opportunity just to relax and chill out or to catch up on homework. There is an opportunity to talk to and listen to young people, some of whom have very difficult issues they are working through. We celebrate individual birthdays with a cake and prayer for that young person.
Remix.
Remix (renamed from Cafe Base) has been held on Tuesday evenings, at Shaw Church for 2½ years now. Attended by young people aged 11-16 from 6 different secondary schools in Swindon area. There are 48 young people with average weekly attendance of 35. The majority of young people are from un-churched families, although a few are from local churches.
There is stress on building positive relationships with young people, through which they are encouraged to share concerns with leaders and listen to one another. Over this last year, we have seen a real growth in trust and self-esteem in many young people who have previously exhibited negative attitudes. We also encourage young people to develop talents, learn new skills (including social and life skills) and explore faith.
Activities include sports, cookery, craft, discussion, music, and dance, there are regular food evenings. We have developed a clear discipline policy over the last year which has helped greatly to develop good behaviour and relationships, using merits for good behaviour and achievement, and penalties for negative behaviour. This results in individual and group awards at the end of term.
In order to explore faith with young people, this year we have held two interactive “labyrinth” sessions around Easter and Advent, a visit from Shaw Church’s link BMS missionary in Guinea, Gen Eldred. Around Valentine’s Day we looked at the subject of God’s love for us in two separate small groups.
We also encourage the young people to think of the wider world through engagement with charities such as Toybox and Tearfund and more recently, Helen House Hospice (Oxford). For the latter, we raised £125.00 at our Christmas Cabaret and had a very moving talk from a lady whose daughter had lived and died at the Hospice recently – the young people were very touched by this and wrote a letter expressing their thoughts to our contact at the Hospice.
Young people have grown in leadership skills over this last year through taking responsibility for different activities. We now have 14 young people with clearly defined leadership roles and many of them attend regular Management Meetings for the project, in conjunction with adult leaders. Young people from the group have recently helped to set up a Remix facebook page in order to improve communication of events and news.
Remix sessions are always planned and evaluated as a whole team (with input from young people) and the team always pray together before and after each session.
School Lunch Clubs.
Wed (Greendown)
Ivyna (ncounter) supports the Schools Christian Worker, Dave Davison (Freshbrook Church/SYFC) where average attendance is 10. The aims of the club are to explore and develop Christian faith and have fun, through games and Bible study. The group is attended by a mixture of churched and unchurched young people and we have seen new young people from Remix starting to attend this group since September ’09.
Thurs (Bradon Forest)
Ivyna does 2 lunch clubs alongside Beth Dent, Purton and W. Bassett Lay Youth & Childrens’ Worker. Numbers on average are 15 (y 7-8) and 8 (y 9-11). The aims of the club are to explore and develop Christian faith and have fun, through games, Bible study and prayer.
Other activities we link into run by other local churches
- Impact – town-wide bi-monthly youth worship event
- The Ultimate Event – huge Christian youth get-together at Alton Towers with Christian rock concert
- Oasis Pool Party – annual social event
For the last two years we have also led small group trips to Greenbelt Christian Arts festival
The Greenbelt 2009 gang
Emerge Management Committee
The emerge Management team now comprises: Claire Camm (Project Manager), Ivyna Melo (Gap student from Ncounter), Andy Vernon, Judith Mumford, Nicki Badcock and we have 12 young people who have leadership roles within the groups and all are invited to attend Management Committee meetings – in practice between 4-12 of them attend.
All Saints
Lydiard Millicent
Holy Trinity
Shaw
St Mary’s
Lydiard Tregoze
Toothill
Westlea
This page last modified 01:35:46 BST on Thu 1 Apr, 2010
