23 May 2013

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Health and Belief Fund 2013

5 March 2013 By

London Catalyst and the Church Urban Fund have released details about the Health & Belief fund for 2013. This annual grant is intended to support faith-based community projects in tackling poverty and health inequalities in London.

The grant is open to social action groups, voluntary and community organisations based in London with an annual income of less than £150,000.

  • Projects to be funded need to demonstrate:
  • A significant link with a faith group
  • Plans to work with an appropriate expert health agency
  • Tackling the effects of poverty and addressing health inequalities
  • A new approach to a situation or a thoughtful development in response to ongoing needed

Grants are up to £10,000 for one year for projects beginning in 2013.

Applications should be sent by Friday 31 May 2013. You will find the details and form here (pdf).

To assist applicants a Briefing and Advice seminar will be held on 25 March. At this event you can hear from previous grant recipients and the two funders. Places are limited. For more details and to book a place go to healthandbelief2013.eventbrite.com.

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles, Fundraising

Lunch

26 February 2013 By

Last week I took a trip out to Essex with Marlon Nelson to visit a club set up by a church in Thurrock that gives a cooked meal to children eligible for free school meals during the holidays.Which is a time when these children often miss out on their one hot meal of the day. The group is one of many Lunch clubs that are being run by churches all over the country. You can find out more on their website.

I went to see it as it was something that it is easy to imagine being very effective here in London as the proportion of primary school aged children claiming free school meals in London 7% above the national average at 22% with inner London boroughs coming in at 33%. I thought I would go and see one in operation to get a feel for how they function and how much work is involved in their set up and running.

Thurrock Lunch Club, which is held in a local school’s dining room, has the children there for about an hour and half with a few craft activities available as the children arrive at about 11.30. I mainly used the pre-lunch time to make a Playdough spider, it was going really rather well before being squashed by a child when my back was turned! Food was then served at about quarter past twelve with nine children (they had averaged higher through the week) sitting down to eat with the leaders. We had stew with jacket potatoes and jelly with fruit salad for pudding and there was a wonderful sense of community around the tables as everyone tucked in. The children then helped clear up and left at about 1.15. They clearly appreciated the club and behaved really well throughout.

Being there also gave me a chance to spend some time in the kitchen chopping veg with one of the leaders and getting a feel for what the practicalities of running the club were. The first and obvious cost was the food production which was around £2.50 a head, you could do this for less but they felt that that was what they needed to spend to enable them to provide the children with a good meal. This was cooked in the school kitchens, which helped them overcome some of the red tape associated with preparing food for public consumption, on the morning of the club by one of the leaders who had a food hygiene certificate. Four leaders staffed it but the recruitment and retention of these was very difficult, especially for the summer run when they covered four of the six weeks. One of the leaders was a mum of some of the children who came to the club and joined the team despite not being part of the church.

The club had also found the school to be incredibly welcoming with the hall and kitchen provided for free and letter being sent out each term to all those claiming free school meals.

Overall Lunch is one of those things that when you hear about it you just think ‘what a good idea’ and nothing I saw on my visit changed my mind about that. It is a fantastic way for a church to serve those in need in the local community. It also creates an opportunity to meet children and families that you wouldn’t normally meet.

Filed Under: Children's Ministry, Community Ministry, Featured articles

Life has its seasons

15 February 2013 By

It’s good to be back after the operation, no really, and there’s nothing like having a hip replacement and becoming a grandfather in the same year to make you realise that life is moving on. While I was lying on my bed, recovering at home, there were moments when I began to reflect on 45 years of church related community development work, 38 of those as an ordained person.

From the vantage point of working right across the diocese to encourage community ministry and embed community development values, I have often been struck by a discrepancy between the two vocations I have followed – that the clergy often seem to go on forever; as R S Thomas puts it; ‘Venerable men, their black cloth a little dusty, a little green with holy mildew…’, whereas elderly community workers are much more difficult to spot; altogether a much rarer, shorter lived species, suddenly vanishing in their late 50’s!

How you adapt to life’s changes is a very personal, sensitive subject, which can also be very stressful, but at its best should be a prayerful reflection on where I am and what I can still contribute in this role, a reflection on the gifts I have, the energy that remains and the sensitivity to know when it’s time to move on and share that wisdom in other ways.

Change brings its challenges at any stage of life, but as we get older there is a risk that we become less open to new possibilities, more set in our ways, perhaps remaining in post for our own security rather than making way for someone with the right vision and energy to take the parish or project forward for the next five or ten years.

So let me share three things that arrived in the same recent mailing.

1. A flyer advertising the Student Christian Movement ‘Seeds of Liberation’ conference. A short piece introduced Bruce Kent, who was the Roman Catholic parish priest in Somers Town Euston in the 60’s, when I cut my community development teeth there. The flyer introduced him as ‘a former catholic priest and chaplain who has spent years campaigning for human rights, peace and nuclear disarmament. He will be sharing his experience and passing on the batten to a new generation’.

2. A notice from Church House Publishing promoting a new book; ‘Moving on in Ministry’ – ‘At some point, all in ordained ministry will go through changes and times of transition….this new volume offers a theological companion for all clergy in transition, from the beginnings of ministry to retirement. What does it mean to listen to God at times of change? Does the concept of career fit with a sense of vocation? What can we learn from the secular world about managing change? How can ministers stay the course and finish strong?’

3. A home grown, diocesan and excellent resource called PSALM, which was developed by my predecessor, Ann Morisy, almost 10 years ago. If you haven’t experienced one of their courses have a look at their website; http:/www.psalm.org.uk   ‘The PSALM strap line is taking age and spirituality seriously. We take ageing and spirituality seriously because there is growing evidence that faith is a helpful tool as we negotiate our 3rd and 4th ages. Studies show that prayer and attending church (yes!) are strongly linked with a positive experience of growing old. By providing opportunities for us to draw on the resources of our faith-and to discover new ones, we equip ourselves to respond to this new map of life’.

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles

Bog standard response to poverty?

14 January 2013 By

Lack of access to clean water and effective sanitation impacts the health of a community as well as their ability to develop economically. Thanks to contributions from staff at Diocesan House the Diocese has been able to provide two toilets and hygiene education for a community in Bangladesh and DRC.

Toilet Twinning is a partnership between Cord and Tearfund, two international charities who got together because 2.5 billion people don’t have somewhere safe & hygienic to go to the loo. Right now, more than 50% of hospital beds in developing countries are filled with people who have an illness caused by poor sanitation or dirty water (UNDP). The lack of a loo makes women and girls a target for sexual assault as they go to the toilet in the open late at night and many girls drop out of school due to inadequate sanitation provision.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Potentially Africa’s richest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered merciless exploitation and conflict over its vast resources of timber, minerals, oil and gas. It is now only one country away from being the worst place on earth for life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living.

588 latrines have been built by the community working together, as Nyanzale didn’t have any toilets before the project began. Work began in Nyanzale by raising awareness about the benefits of sanitation and hygiene. They then distributed tools to groups of 10 households, to enable them to work together to dig a pit and build their own latrine.  The project has encouraged community members to use locally-available materials for the floor, walls and roof. Statistics from the Nyanzale Health Centre indicate that malaria rates have decreased by 78% and diarrhoea rates by 53%.

You can watch more about the impact of Toilet Twinning here – What is toilet twinning?

Could you join us and Bishop Richard and twin your church toilets this year?

www.toilettwinning.org

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles, Global Development

It Took Another Riot

20 December 2012 By

Matthew Girt, Head of Strategic Development, writes:

Following the riots in Tottenham last summer a small independent group, commissioned by the Mayor and chaired by Sir Stuart Lipton, was asked to look at the reasons for the riots in Tottenham and make recommendations to turn the situation around. The Diocese and its local clergy played a key role in this work, and the report ‘It took another riot’ is the result.

The report was launched on the 11th December at both City Hall and Tottenham by Boris Johnson, Lord Heseltine, Sir Stuart Lipton and David Lammy MP. As you will see it is hard hitting in its recommendations and observations, yet has cross party, local and national support, and is accepted by the Mayor in its entirety.

Michael Heseltine who supported our work through this last year was clear in his statements about the importance of the findings and recommendations and drew parallels with the work in the 1980’s at Toxteth.

It is clear that the work of the Church of England is recognised in this report, and Sir Stuart Lipton publicly referred to it on a number of occasions in his address. The work on the report has opened doors and increased understanding of the work of the Church on a wide scale, but more importantly it smooths the way for clergy and lay to take forward their mission and ministry with the society in which they live and work in Tottenham. It also acts as ‘approved proof’ of the huge relevance of the Church of England in London.

I would particularly like to note my thanks to the local clergy, whose work features in the report, for their work and contributions and contacts throughout this years work.

Download the report.

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles

‘One Size Fails All’

30 November 2012 By

On Wednesday 28 November, Demos launched the results of a new analysis of poverty called ‘Poverty in Perspective’.  The study looked at the types of people living below the poverty line, on low incomes, to understand who these people are and what their lives look like.

Demos applied 20 indicators; things like low qualifications, overcrowded housing, fuel poverty, mental ill health, lack of family support and low political participation and then looked for patterns.  Because of the interlinking nature of poverty they found there were certain groups who had the same indicators clustered together and came up with 15 ‘types of poverty’.  These 15 types can be seen in three cohorts:

  • Five types of households with children
  • Five types of households without children
  • Five types of pensioner households

 “It recognises that low-income families are not a homogeneous group requiring a one-size-fits-all response, but a diverse collection of people, needing different strategies to tackle the types of poverty they face.”

Full House Families

For example under the group of households with children they recognise a type of family they labelled ‘Full House Families’:

“Just over one in five families in poverty (22 per cent) fit into this group. These tend to be very large households, containing multiple adults and young children. Members of this group are more likely to be from Asian and other BME backgrounds, many without English as a first language. They are able to heat their homes and are not behind on bills, but housing conditions are more likely to be overcrowded. Their qualifications range from low to degree level, but their rate of employment is low, with only one or two family members in work. The live in deprived but reasonably supportive neighbourhoods, and get more support from families.”

Insecure Singles

Another group were the ‘Insecure Singles’:

“This group accounts for just over one in five of all childless, working age households in poverty. These are overwhelmingly single adult households, predominantly renting their homes, whether in private or social housing. Members of this group tend to be deprived and lack consumer durables, and are often behind with paying their bills. They report struggling financially, and the majority are unemployed. They are highly likely to experience physical and mental health problems. They live in the most deprived neighbourhoods and receive mixed levels of support from neighbours and family.”

For each of the 15 people types there is a helpful infographic which shows the characteristics and struggles facing.  You can find out more about these here.

Promoting partnership

The report intends to inform policy makers and prompt joint working and partnerships in agencies that might not normally work together.  The recommendations are broken down and specific to each people group bringing a new perspective on tackling poverty at a household level.

 “Bringing adult skills, health outreach, debt and budgeting advice services into social housing locations to help households tackle their problems on all fronts simultaneously requires considerable coordination and the will to work together for a joint outcome – not an easy feat in the current economic climate of payment by results, cost shunting and competing priorities.”

This report is interesting for churches trying to understand the shifting trends and patterns of poverty in their communities and find innovative and specific ways to respond.  Some of the interesting inidicators are around family support, community engagement as well as political engagement.  Churches already do so much to support and strengthen families and communities and could take the opportunity to identify those with low levels of participation to work with them to build up their confidence and connections to create stronger resilience and support networks.

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Information

Urban church planting: bypass or skin graft?

15 October 2012 By

Our guest blogger is the Revd John Wood from St Ann’s in Tottenham, sharing his experience and vision for church planting in multi-ethnic urban areas.

London as we know is a cultural melting pot, its individual ethnic minority communities often numbered in hundreds of thousands. Impoverished estates make up the majority housing in many London boroughs.  Therefore to have an Anglican movement genuinely committed to church planting as a means of national (re) evangelisation will require a quantum change in the ethnic composition of its leadership and staffing.  Continuing in this poverty of ethnicity and culturally monochrome staffing has real consequences, for example the disappointment for new church plants of failing to attract or reflect the majority of the population they live in and exist to serve. The early enthusiasm of their members may then give way to disillusionment and disenchantment with the whole Christian faith and enterprise, surely too high a price to pay.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Edmonton, Featured articles Tagged With:

Finding the funding

27 June 2012 By

The reality facing most churches is that making a difference in your community costs money.  The recent Bishop of Willesden’s Community Ministry day brought together local clergy and laity to share about their community ministry projects and also to share learning around fundraising and income generation, particularly from trusts and funds.

We have tried to put together a short summary of the learning and hope that this will be helpful to you.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, DCG, Featured articles, Fundraising

Litter picking love

19 June 2012 By

At the beginning of this year Holy Trinity Tottenham completed renovation of its ‘Old School House’ building which is a wonderful space that has sat unused since its tenants moved out. Now the church has reclaimed the building to use to serve its local community. Central to the riots last summer the church is passionate about opening itself up more to the people of Tottenham.

When I visited Holy Trinity last week I spent time with Peter the chair of the PCC and Father Bunmi the vicar there. It was great hearing them speak about the area, with a passion and love for it, for its history and their desire to anchor a community that is transient and disconnected. I heard about the history of Tottenham, about fishing in Lea Valley and the boundary lines of the Viking land, something you can barely imagine looking around now. I also saw love in action as Father Bunmi patiently undertook his daily litter pick of the church grounds clearing dirty nappies, beer cans and other detritus – telling of the lack of care and ownership some people feel towards the environment they live in.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles

Go and do likewise

12 June 2012 By

Last month, we held a really interesting Bishop of Kensington’s Community Ministry meeting at the impressively renewed St Andrew Fulham Fields. These meetings, held across the episcopal Areas, are principally an opportunity to make connections between those engaged in community ministry and to share good practice. One of the questions raised from time to time is this issue of retaining Christian distinctiveness as church members engage in/develop community projects. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, DCG, Featured articles, Kensington, Mission

Kensington Community Ministry day

3 May 2012 By

I walked into the beautifully renovated St Andrew’s Fulham Fields this morning and immediately was warmly welcomed and offered a cup of tea and bacon sandwich – the rare occasion I wished I hadn’t had breakfast. The church has just opened its new community centre – the Star Centre – and finished extensive works to restore the church and reorder it to be a flexible and useful space for the parish.

There was a great buzz in the centre, people were in and out using the cafe, a delivery from the local market arrived and a group began organising fruit and vegetable into piles as part of their local food cooperative. The church was hosting the Bishop of Kensington’s community ministry morning and gathered 28 clergy and laity with the purpose of sharing what’s happening in the parishes of Kensington – the highlights and the struggles and time to encourage and learn from each other.

Around 15 churches were represented and we heard about really creative community projects that are using the gifts and skills present in churches including a film club, homeless shelters and day centres, boxing club, English lessons, teaching mums to cook, concerts, art shows and gardening projects to name just a few. For many there is a lot of work to be done around finding the right space to run community activities whether making the space they have usable or finding other spaces to use. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Featured articles

The Barnabas Group

2 April 2012 By

The Barnabas Group Drop in was established about a decade ago to provide a quality, friendly and flexible service to people suffering from mental health issues. Whilst this is still the strong core of the work, the flexibility of the activities provided has enabled and “allowed” others with different support needs (and apparently none) to attend and participate. The drop in is open twice weekly.

The Revd Graham Buckle (St Paul Rossmore Road) said:

“It’s a risky business having mental health groups meeting in your church centre every week. We’ve had experiences with people coming in, and disrupting worship initially this was disturbing to some worshippers but we all now know that, these are the very people that we must listen to and welcome”.

To understand more about the work of the Group see the PDF attachment: The Barnabas Group.

 

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Community Ministry good news

Community Ministry projects across the Diocese

23 December 2011 By

With many in the country acutely affected by the economic and social crisis that exists it has never been more important for the church to be actively involved in the “repair” and regeneration of local communities. What there is and indeed what has always been there is a model of big society that the government talked about and sought to promote.

The recent Area Bishop Community Ministry days identified and highlighted a number of issues that require additional attention and focus. These included:

  • Funding and income generation
  • Constitutions and governance documents
  • Dealing with new and different communities
  • Building and development work and the marketing of said space
  • Raising the profile and sharing the good news of what is being done

The Community Ministry team aims to look at and formulate responses to these issues during the course of 2012.

Across the Diocese (and of course the country) there are growing numbers of people suffering, many silently as they deal with the myriad of issues that life continues to throw at them. For some the variety of projects and good work taking place at parish level has been literally a life saver.

Winter night shelters

Each borough across the Diocese has a Winter Night Shelter project the most recently established of these are in Chiswick and Westminster, many of these are now in operation and will remain open until the end of March. For help and advice on establishing a shelter service Housing Justice has produced its shelter in a pack resource. If you want to make a connection with a shelter near you (volunteering, donations etc) get in touch and I can offer direction.

Personal debt

Total UK personal debt at the end of October 2011 stood at £1,451bn. Individuals owe nearly as much as the entire country produced in the four quarters between Q4 2010 and Q3 2011. It is estimated that 1600 people are made redundant daily and that there is a repossession of a house every 15 minutes – source Credit Action and working alongside people affected we operate Christians Against Poverty Centres and Community Money Advice Centres, and other initiatives. There is also a growth and development of the Foodbank network and services to refugee communities, services for people affected by mental health issues, family support and mediation, counselling projects and education projects to name a few. These compliment the children, youth and services to the elderly that are a core activity of parishes.

On behalf of all the people who access this work and services, thank you for your investment and commitment to the cause. Many of these initiatives have received funding support from the Church Urban Fund Mustard Seed Programme a summary/snap shot of the investment into the Diocese for 2011 has also been produced.

Filed Under: Community Ministry

Community franchising

23 November 2011 By

The Cinnamon Network is a relational network of nearly 100 leaders of Denominations and Chief Executives of Christian organisations developing responses to the Big Society.

The Cinnamon Network wishes to encourage replication of social initiatives that work and we have completed extensive research regarding Community Franchising.

Franchising is about taking a good idea and replicating it; it’s about developing a model that can be replicated.

Community franchising is about taking a model of Christian social action and replicating it for use by churches so that they can serve the needs of their local communities.

Why is Community Franchising important?

  • It enables the local church to make a tried and tested response to local problems
  • It promotes the role of the church as an agent of community transformation
  • The nature of a franchise avoids the ‘re invention of the wheel’. This means that resources are not being used to develop a model that has already been developed elsewhere
  • The franchise model can be adopted easily by a church as one of its community programmes rather than a church having to develop a separate legal structure to deliver it.

To find out more about Community Franchising visit www.communityfranchising.net.

There are also funding opportunities from the Kerygma Foundation and the Cross Pollinate Foundation.

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Fundraising, Notice board

Funding & fundraising hints and tips

30 September 2011 By

The thousands of local, regional and natonal funding bodies that are known to us will all receive bids that if supported would wipe out the allocation budget in one go. Now, while it is not always easy to get money from a funder, some of the principles and processes for producing a good funding application are not rocket science.

Over the coming weeks and months I intend to compile a list of best practice notes or ‘it worked for me’ tips that we can all use to wow and impress the funding officer who is sitting there with a portfolio of applications – all of which they want to support.

If you are successful in securing money from any of the sources shared in Community Ministry News or from any funding stream do get in touch to share your experiences.

Although it might always feel like a funding has put all of its policy and criteria in front of you as a trip up, they genuinely do want to give support to communities. Often we encourage them not to support us, by some of the things we include in our applications. This post will shine a little light onto the issue of finance.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Ministry, Fundraising