St Andrew's Church

“Point your children in the right direction — when they’re old they won’t be lost.” Proverbs 22:6

Every now and then an opportunity arises which catches the imagination and brings encouragement for the future. Some of my readers might have heard of a youth work project running in Hadleigh called The Porch Project. Just over a year ago, they came and visited us at the church and gave a presentation about their work. Local residents, the police and councillors were amongst those who came to find out more.

It all went a bit quiet but now 18 months on I am very pleased to tell you that the reality of bringing that project to Great Cornard is just around the corner. There are still some details to work out, but with the Cornard Townlands Charity’s financial backing and other donations we can bring a part time professional youth worker to Great Cornard.

Their remit will be to work with the church and community to help us meet the needs of our young people. Initially this will involve the recruiting and training of volunteers, working with the chaplaincy team at Thomas Gainsborough School and of course getting out on the streets to talk with the young people of Great Cornard to find out what they want.

This is great news and we at church are really excited at the prospect of connecting with the young people of the community and finding ways to help support and encourage them in the midst of all the challenges that they face. The project is limited in scope to begin with, partly because of our funding situation; but more than monies we need to recruit volunteers from the community to work with us in order that we can engage with proper training, grow the work and give it a firm future. The only way any work like this can grow is with your help – if you’ve a heart for young people and would like to find out more, then do get in touch.

Our plans are fairly open ended at this point, anything we do needs to respond to the needs of the young people themselves  – we do hope to support the existing youth group which Eden’s Project runs, we hope to create further spaces for them on a week day evening, we hope to increase the hours that we can employ our youth worker for, but most of all we hope to make a difference in the lives of our young people – giving them self respect, giving them a voice and working to give them a future in which they won’t be lost. It’ll take time and we might make mistakes on the way but with your prayers, your support and with God’s blessing we can make a difference.

Many blessings for you and all you love,

 

Chris

Email:    vicar@standrews-gc.org.uk

Phone:                 01787 376 293