What We Do

Supporting youth work throughout the Diocese

The Diocesan Youth Officer is engaged in the following activities:

• Networking
• Being a resource to churches
• Supporting both volunteer and employed youth workers
• Supporting the Deanery Youth Projects
• Running Camps and Youth Events
• Planting Fresh Expressions of Church amongst young people

Supporting the Churches

Within the Diocese there is a wealth of differing youth groups and clubs meeting regularly. The young people who attend come from a variety of differing backgrounds and ethnic groups. Many of the churches employ qualified youth leaders as the role of youth leader becomes increasingly professionalized.

Whilst much of our excellent work is about schooling the young people in bible knowledge other churches are also engaged with some very creative ventures. For example a church in Southam has for the last two years ran a ‘Granny Wagon’ where older members of the church offer both hot drinks and friendship to young people who are often involved in gang culture. In return the young people feel valued and listened to. Bridges are being built between churches and groups of disaffected young people across the diocese.

The Diocesan Youth Officer both supports this work and takes a lead in bringing such groups of volunteer youth workers together. A weekly email goes out to over 200 youth groups where information is shared whilst network meetings, camps and events happen regularly.

Goth’s / Urban Church

As Diocesan Youth Officer, twenty percent of my time is engaged with building church with gangs of young people in the centre of Coventry. The work began around three years ago when I engaged with a group of Goth’s (young people who listen to heavy metal music and where dark clothing) it soon became apparent that these young people had nowhere safe to meet up. A room was offered where they could play their music and gather. The work soon grew and through conversations the youth team discovered that many of these young people faced issues of homelessness, addiction and a lack of hope. We work in partnership with Coventry Cathedral’s Youth Team and others in order to meet these needs.

From the beginning members of this group chose to come with us to church services probably because they had little else to do. However it soon became obvious that the gap between church ‘as we know it’ and this group of young people was too great. They became restless in services and found little to apply to the rest of their lives. Today we are working to a different model. Every Wednesday night at the instigation of the young people a group of us sit down and hold a simple service of Compline, candles are lit and prayers are shared. This is church for these young people.

We are now working with around 130 Goth’s and the work is still growing. Using this as a good model to follow we are now also engaging with a group of urban young people (sometimes referred to as ‘Hoodies’) and helping them through holistic youth work to ask life’s big questions, our hope is that they too may find a living faith in Jesus Christ.

Finally

There is little room here to tell you about the ex library van that we are converting into a mobile youth centre, nor our work with clubbers in the centres of Coventry and Rugby. I have only just scratched the surface of some very innovative and Christ centred youth work in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Greg Bartlem

Diocesan Youth Officer