How can we support you?
Local Resourcing and Training
If you want to gather people from your benefice to develop your reach to children, young people and families, we can come and work with you. This may be over a Saturday brunch in someone’s home, or over coffee and cake in a church hall one evening, or a benefice or PCC vision day.
You might be wanting to consider:
• How we focus on children when our congregations are aging;
• How to ensure that our church worship is engaging and accessible for all ages and backgrounds;
• How our churches can help children start a journey of faith that they want to stick with though their teens and into adulthood;
• How our churches grow thriving and sustainable teams to support children, young people and families;
• Or something else! – Just let us know.
Please contact Charlotte or Chad if you are interested.
Visiting Examples of Good Practice
Church is not just about Sundays. Our churches make many connections with children and families during the week, going to the places where they are. The Growing Faith Adventure describes this interconnection where children are supported through church-school-home. This may be through taking cakes for the staff at the local school every term, or helping the toddler group families get ready for school in September, or running a family day in the local park. Perhaps you would like to visit an example of this to give you some ideas for your own setting. If so, please let us know to arrange a visit.
Here are some ideas:
A rural toddler group
An outside church in a pocket park
An intergenerational coffee morning
A school happiness club
Intergenerational services that attract the local school families
Messy church
An urban toddler group
Forest church
An intergenerational Sunday church service
Anything else?
Just let us know what you would like to see, and we will see if we can find you a good match. Contact charlotte.nobbs@peterborough-diocese.org.uk
Hubs
We have created a network of Children’s and Youth Ministry Hubs that resource, support and encourage Children’s and Youth Ministers in their work with Churches, Families and Schools. Over the last 5 years we have established 14 local hubs from Peterborough to Daventry, all connected to one another and each hosted by a couple of local children’s or youth workers.
Working with children and young people is richly rewarding and full of joy, but it can also be challenging, tiring and isolating. Here at the children and youth team, we believe it is really important for Churches and Charities to connect and pray, share resources and work as a team. We think the crossover in our ministries with Schools, Families and Churches creates a really exciting conversation about what God is doing in our area, so we gather together regularly to share our passion for working with children and young people.
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We Connect and Pray
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We Share Our Resources
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We Work as a Team
Each Hub is ecumenical. Twelve of the fourteen cover a geographical area and two are thematic (the Outdoor Church Hub and the Schools Chaplaincy Hub). The Network is hosted by a small team of representatives from Children and Youth Ministry Charities and Organisations in our area - Souster Youth, The Kitchen Table Project (Care for the Family), Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs and Gen2 (Peterborough Diocese).
Contact Chad for more information and to connect with your nearest hub.
What are people saying?
We are hearing from Children’s and Youth Workers how much they value being part of both a local hub and a wider network…
"At the moment we only meet for an hour on Zoom, but already we are working on joint projects together, speaking on the phone, going for 1 to 1 walks and learning from each other. I have been so encouraged, challenged and energised" Charlotte - Earls Barton
"God has created a beautiful family here. There are many positives to this – mutual support, resource-sharing, prayer, fellowship and more, but ultimately it’s for the benefit of the people we serve and to the glory of God" Hannah - Irthlingborough
"For me the network is important. It provides a place for supportive relationships, prayer and encouragement. A place where we can be truly open and honest with each, whether we are feeling great or really low" Chris - Irchester