Hannah Ratcliffe, Relationship Manager, for the Children’s Society in the East of England writes:
“Across the Diocese of Norwich, many churches generously support the work of the Children’s Society, through mission giving, houseboxes, Christingles and other events to raise funds. We are so grateful for this generous support.
“This year marks 140 years since our foundation back in 1881 by a Sunday School teacher who set up homes across the country. Much has changed since then and now we run services across the country and campaign for wider change too.
“I would like to share our special thanks to St George’s in Tombland for recently providing the church as a venue for a training course for one of the services, Inside Out, which operates across Norfolk – helping young people who have had multiple care placements to regain stability and empower hope in their future.”
Licenced Lay Minister, Kevin explains more:
“Today the Society’s work centres on three areas:
- Risk – threats and dangers to a young person’s safety;
- Resilience – a young person’s capacity to respond to adversity; and
- Resources – what is required to meet a young person’s needs
“At St George, Tombland we’ve been supporting the work of the Children’s Society for many years – from the days it was commonly called the Waifs and Strays Society. A number of us have collection boxes for our loose change and over the years the Christmas Collections have been given to the Society. Unfortunately, as is common with many charities, during the Covid crisis donations to the Society have fallen with donors having less change in their pockets – we’ve been using cards in shops instead of cash
“So when we were approached by the Society to use St George Tombland as a training venue we were happy to agree – a tangible way to replace the reduced cash collections with some “in kind” assistance.
“For the last two weeks, and for the next two weeks, we have been delighted to host two trainers (Vicky Taylor and Rebecca Bentley – shown in the photo) and six young people, from the Children’s Society, who have been exploring and preparing for the move from care into semi-independent accommodation or independent living. The course has been a fantastic start for these young people – they’ve learnt new life skills – many of which any of us would find useful – just look at what they’ve covered:
- Session 1 – Introduction, getting to know you chats, understanding what the sessions have to offer and what attendees will get from the sessions.
- Session 2 – Employment, CV’s, Interviews, Training
- Session 3 – Budgeting, Banking, Direct Debits and bills, Savings and Debt management.
- Session 4 – Tenancies, Policies, Rights and Responsibilities, Being a good Neighbour
- Session 5 – Making a home, maintenance, food shopping, cooking on a budget.
- Session 6 – Relationships, Inclusivity, Safety planning
- Session 7 – Wellbeing, healthy Eating, Exercise and Sleep, five ways to Wellbeing, Hobbies, Interests and Leisure
- Session 8 – Re-cap of topics, final CV, Goal setting and Certificate.
“Just one way in which the Society works with young people and children – one way our collection boxes help.
“At the end of the first day of one of the courses I asked the trainers what we could do to continue helping – Rebecca simply said “you can pray for us”
““You can pray for us!” – and we can. So, in your goodness and in your prayers, please remember and offer a brief word for the work of the Children’s Society – the work they do in meeting their objectives of:
- directly improving the lives of children and young people; and
- creating a positive shift in social attitudes to improve the situation facing children and young people”
Find out more about the Children’s Society and the work they do here.
