Notes from a seminar I gave at Youthwork The Conference in Eastbourne on 25th November 2012. The purpose is to challenge the Christian church to engage in developing creative youth services in the wake of the statutory youth sector cuts.

1. REPLACING THE YOUTH SERVICE
Jon Jolly (@bobweasel)

2. A TREE DYING FROM INSIDE
• In 2009 Tony Jeffs
predicted the demise of
statutory youth services.
• An obsession with
targets & outcomes, a
focus on individuals over
group interactions, and a
shift to case work was
sounding the death knell.

3. A TREE DYING FROM INSIDE
• He was right. Youth
services took the brunt of
budget cuts. Those left
have a narrow focus on
‘targeted’ young people.
• Tony’s hope was that
voluntary agencies
would again have space
to flourish locally.

4. WHY IS THIS A CHURCH ISSUE?
• Over £200 million cuts to
youth services
• 1 million young people
unemployed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/nov/16/youth-
unemployment-map
• 1 in 6 are NEET
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19342998
• Where do they go for
help now?

5. GIDEON: A USEFUL NARRATIVE
Overlooked
• Gideon was the least
of his family in the
least tribe of Israel.
• Churches are often
not taken seriously as
youth work providers.

6. GIDEON: A USEFUL NARRATIVE
Under-resourced
• Although Gideon
mustered a large
army, God shrank it to
300.
• Most churches have
limited budgets and
few staff.

7. GIDEON: A USEFUL NARRATIVE
Creative
• Despite just a small
army, some trumpets
and torches, Gideon
defeated the
Midianites.
• Churches have the
freedom & flexibility to
be creative.

8. OUR JOURNEY
Some of our experiences of developing
youth provision alongside local
councils and other partners.

9. DEFINING OUR WORK
FAITH: to explore Christianity, allowing
children and young people to discover
a relationship with Jesus Christ
FAITH and develop a deeper confidence in
owning and sharing their faith.
COMMUNITY: to provide positive social
and learning opportunities for all children
and young people within the wider
community, regardless of faith.
COMMUNITY SCHOOL
SCHOOL: to support schools in
providing creative lessons, assemblies
and activities that enhance formal
learning for students, particularly around
faith and spirituality.

10. DEFINING OUR WORK
Explaining what we aim
do in clear and direct
FAITH language has helped
our partners understand
our motivation and have
confidence in our work.
COMMUNITY SCHOOL This has lead to us re-
opening closed youth
centres, and starting a
new drop-in.

11. A SURPRISING PARTNERSHIP

12. RUSTINGTON YOUTH CENTRE

13. SOUTHFIELDS YOUTH DROP-IN

14. THE BIGGER PICTURE
There are other great examples of
churches developing local youth
services. What are the trends and
lessons learned?

15. OPPORTUNITIES
• To develop creative, positive activities &
relationships with young people.
• To build useful, strategic local partnerships.
• To re-establish ourselves as valuable services
for the community.
• …to do all this without ‘jumping through hoops’
of targets & outcomes that have dominated
youth provision for the last decade.

16. BARRIERS
• Mistrust & misunderstanding from partners.
Having a clarity of purpose is key.
• Lack of evidence. We must get better at proving
what we do is important.
• Funding & sustaining the work. Grants are
harder to come by so can churches support
themselves directly?

17. KEY QUESTIONS
Things to answer before doing anything!
• What is already happening? Is there a need?
• What is your purpose? Does this fit?
• Is there a willingness to do it?
• What are your resources?
• Who are your partners?