This story from Timsbury may inspire you...
For several years there was no youth work in Timsbury until in 2018 St Mary’s Church worked with Bath Youth for Christ (YFC), the diocesan Go Team, the parish council, and the local YMCA to employ a part-time youth worker, and the Timsbury Youth Project was born. Most of the funding for the salary came from external grants as the target was to work with young people from outside of the church. After consulting with some local young people and with a few volunteers, the new worker Jane Van-Happs set up a small youth group in the local YMCA building. Jane also went into the local primary school to build relationships with year 5 and 6 children. After a slow start, a few months in the group had a regular core of about twelve young people. Helping Jane were two experienced volunteers, the Revd Martin Blewett and three parent helpers. After more consultation with the young people, a small cooking club was set up on Wednesday evenings to help five young people gain cooking skills that ran for twelve weeks. The youth club was going well, even having trips out, then in March 2020 the pandemic hit, and everything stopped overnight.
Jane kept in contact with some young people and put a regular post in the parish newsletter, but most of the contact was lost which was tough. As the first lockdown eased Jane and a volunteer did an evening walk around the village. Sometimes they would see up to six young people but often they would see just one or two or none of them. But they kept going whatever the weather; they also used it as a prayer walk to pray for the young people in the village. They manged to get to know a few older teens who hung around in the local park, dodging lockdown restrictions.
As the second lockdown eased, Jane and the main volunteer felt it was time to meet again with the young people. Jane put an article in the parish magazine letting everyone know that youth workers would be in the park on Friday evenings for an hour, where they had hired the tennis court to use for the drop-in. Nothing was structured, just some games equipment available and hot chocolate, leaving the young people to interact (safely) or sit around and chat. Being outside felt much safer than the Covid restrictions needed for meeting inside. On the first week twelve young people turned up, then over the coming weeks numbers went up to sixteen. Jane was also able to do her school visits again to rebuild relationships when restrictions were eased. Time will be needed to build confidence and those relationships with the young people again. Unfortunately, most of the parent helpers have dropped off so more parent volunteers are needed.
There are no plans to go back into the YMCA building until September 2021 because of the continued Covid restrictions; Jane also wants to use the time to find out what the young people want. The team are not sure what the youth club will look like in the future, but they are faithfully praying and listening to the young people.
So, if you are a church that is considering reaching out to young people and you don’t know where to start, why not start with prayer followed by listening to a few of the local young people. Anything you offer does not need to be complicated or have big numbers involved, small is totally okay. You do not need to employ a worker or have fancy programs or lots of expensive equipment. All you need to do is make time and space available where you can work with the young people to help implement what they might want. It might be as simple as offering the back of the church, or the church porch or space in the church hall for a few hours a month. It always helps to have some hot chocolate and snacks available; the young people will tell you what they like. Social media and online meeting have been a gift during lockdown, but now young people are craving human contact again outside of places of education. Offering a safe space and a listening ear may be all they need to start with along with the necessary safeguarding and Covid safe practices of course.
You may not think that your church has much to offer, neither did the early disciples. But through a small number of faithful people, empowered by the Holy Spirit and listening to the needs of their community, God formed a new movement that we now call ‘The Church’. We can only offer from what little we have so that God can do the rest.
If you would like to know more about starting a small group with young people in your area, get in touch with one of the Go Team Advisers who will be able to advise.