AUTUMN2020

This last year has helped us tounderstand what it is we bring asan organisation to the town and toyoung people. It’s been reallychallenging at times, BUT as we’veleaned into God this year, we’vegrown. As we’ve experienceddifficulties, we’ve persevered byleaning into God more. This hasgrown our character andunderstanding of who we are inChrist, giving us a greater hope forthe future.(Romans 5) We havehad the opportunity to change -as individuals, as a team, and inthe way we work. I believe we’rebetter aligned to the needs ofyoung people now more than everbefore, and we’re well positionedto move forward.

We want to increase our reactiveavailability – journeying withyoung people, without agerestrictions is something unique towhat we and the Church can offer.To do that we will need morestaffing and volunteers who aretrained well… so this includescontinuing to build our incomestrategy…

We want to remain faithmotivated – we have realised thatmore than ever, the hope we carrywithin us is needed greatly bythose we serve. The Church hasthis amazing gift of hope to sharewith others… our faith in Christ iswhat makes us different to otheryouth organisations, and althoughwe may not be speaking outabout Christianity directly in everyproject, we want to be doing whatGod wants us to be doing – andallowing time to listen and followhis lead…

We want to remain embedded inour communities and to increaseour presence – being connectedwith real people on the ground bypartnering with schools,communities, Churches and youngpeople themselves will enable usto play the part God wants us to.

Sue Garb Centre Director

Youth clubs re-starting

As a youth organisation we are following theguidance from the National Youth Agency. Whentheir alert levels moved from red to amber, wedecided to invite a small group of young people tocome and meet us at the Warehouse to discusspossibilities for opening up the youth clubs inOctober. They agreed to help us pilot activitieswith covid secure procedures in place, givingthem the opportunity to decide if it was still worthdoing. The young people were so enthusiastic!With their keenness to make it work, they came upwith creative solutions that they felt still enabledthem to enjoy the youth club. This has includedadjusting to our very first booking system, limitingthe numbers skating at any one time, and wipingdown their own equipment. Not to mention thestatutory regulations of wearing face masks, beingsocially distant and limiting numbers to 15! It’sbeen amazing to see their resilience in action.

Online presenceCase Study

One young person we know had historicallybeen struggling with their mental health andhadn't been attending youth club on a regularbasis. During the summer she began to engagewith our online posts and activities, so wedecided to deliver an activity bag to her. It wasgreat to see her in person and hear how she'dbeen doing. She had been trying to get outevery day in the fresh air, taking her dogs for awalk and enjoying spending time with her family.She must have sent us several instagram posts toshow us how she'd used the activities within thebag. She sent this message to us.

"Hi Sue, Matt and Nathan! Thankyou very much for supporting notonly me but everyone elsethrough this hard time. Thegoody bag is great and I will bemaking brownies this weekendand tag you when I post thefinished results! I'm alreadygetting ready to do some artsand crafts x”

Online assemblies

With nervousness, we took on our firstgoogle classrooms assembly for Holy TrinityPrimary School. This meant that the teamremained in the office and delivered theassembly live via the internet. The childrenstayed within their own classrooms and ourfaces were projected onto their classwhiteboards. We were able to see some ofthe groups waving back at us - which was soencouraging! Wanting to keep our messageinteractive was a challenge, but we manageda game where they had to give their opinionby waving their fingers or folding their arms.This worked well and kept them engaged,before we were able to speak about howChristians believe that we are each createdby God, which gives us great value.

We are planning to continue offering thisservice to schools as well as pre-recordeditems to be used as and when needed,especially as we move towards the Christmasseason.

Listening & 1:1 Support

A noticeable difference during this season is that youth work is becoming smaller. What I meanhere is that as the restrictions on numbers remain for the foreseeable future, our attention isforced upon the ones and twos. Many young people just need some extra support with processinglife, feeling heard and valued amidst the ongoing background chaos of the pandemic. We havereveived Government Funding from the coronavirus community support fund to help us increaseour listening service in schools and the local community. This has included funding to train upmore staff and volunteers in level 3 listening skills and enabled us to buy our first work phones,which means we can offer the service no matter what happens regarding lockdown restrictions.

Due to people having to isolate we have undertaken our first sessions online This has worked welland hasn’t appeared to hinder young people from chatting openly. So far, 2 more schools havetaken up the offer and we’ve increased our current listening sessions from 4 to 12 each week.

Paulet

To be honest we were concerned that wewouldn't be able to work in schools for a whiledue to the COVID restrictions. But, thanks to ourlong term relationships, High Schools were thefirst to ask us to keep supporting their youngpeople.

Our usual first day back in September wouldnormally include welcoming year 7 students atPaulet High School and supporting the cateringstaff in signing everyone up for their parent payaccounts. As students have to enter throughdifferent doors, we are now focused on the year7 and 8s - welcoming, chatting and generallychecking in with those who want to speak withus. It’s been a great time to learn new namesand characters. First day nerves were evident tostart with - but young people are extremelyresilient and have adapted to the newenvironment. Some young people were evennew into the country as well as being at a newschool! Ofcourse, as time has gone on, our rolenow requires us to check compliance withwearing face masks and hand sanitising.

Training

Staff have used their time wisely over the summerto access some great training via zoom. Mattcompleted the 6 day Relationships and SexEducation course with ACET Esteem. We will aimto enhance our small group and youth club workwith new knowledge and resources as well asoffering appropriate lessons and support to localschools as the new RSE curriculum becomes law.Sue G completed the Educational Chaplaincycourse with the Centre for Youth Ministry. Thisenabled Sue to dip her toe into MA level learningas well as increasing her understanding andpassion for mission-focused pastoral care.

Star Buds / Church Support

What’s happening now for young people in our localChurches? How do we carry on supporting them? Do theyeven want or need supporting?

We decided to ask them directly by using the old fashionedsystem of snail mail and the offer of a free gift! Sue Jcreated a questionnaire, offering a selection of ways wecould support them - from zoom sessions, small bible studygroups to chats in McDonalds. The overwhelming reply thatcame back was for the latter. So we started to think abouthow we could manage so many McDonalds visits withoutpiling on the pounds, when lockdown 2 brought us to a halt.We were however, pleased to find that for many, theirChurches were offering some way of meeting, eithervirtually, or face to face. So, for now we are planning a zoomgathering for Christmas. Our weekend residential is stillpencilled in for March 2021, but we are holding our breathon this.

Please contact us if you think we can support your Churchyouth work in any way during this time, even if it’s a chatabout how to meet up safely on zoom. Over the next monthwe are supporting The Community Church as they offer anonline Kid’s Church for their 4-11s. Our hope is to supportand encourage the volunteer team to adapt to a new styleof delivery, whilst enabling the children to hold on to thesense of Christian community and support their faithdevelopment.

Prayer Points

Please join us as we pray foryoung people and the workthat we do.

• Workers/volunteers

• Ability to keep momentum

• To find new ways of workingand serving

• To find new ways of sharingJesus with young people

• For wisdom for our schoolstaff as they manage difficultsituations.

Burton The Warehouse, r/o 83 High Street, Burton on Trent, DE14 1LDT 01283 531722 E info@burton.yfc.co.ukburton.yfc.co.ukCharity No. 1071717. A member of British Youth for Christ

Stay connected with us

To donate to the continuingwork of Burton Youth for Christplease visit

burton.yfc.co.uk

Fundraising

Due to COVID restrictions fromApril, we were unable to continuewith all our planned fundraisingevents. In October Nathan decidedto adapt his fundraising efforts tofit the current situation by playingthe online game ‘fortnite’ for 24hours straight. He smashed his £100target by raising £500! We alsoused this as a trial for playing onlinewith local young people from oneof our youth club settings. Itworked really well, and helped uswork through the logistics ofmaking this happen in a safe way sothat we can offer gaming as anonline option during furtherlockdowns.