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In an expression of partnership the Ministers from four of the local churches, Marple Methodist, Marple URC, Marple Independent Evangelical and Anglican Church, All Saints, met together. After much discussion it was unanimously agreed that there was a need for the employment of an individual whose focus was Outreach to Youth and Children in the Community. They approached the “Thanks for the Fish” trust to provide the initial funding of the project. It was agreed.
On the 1st of Sept 2002 an appointment was made when Andy Settle, a Church Army Officer, was appointed as Youth and Children’s Outreach Worker. He was to work in association with all the Churches but focus on outreach into the community. As a Church Army Evangelist Andy came with a good background and experience in youth and children’s work having worked for two years with families of the British Armed Forces in Germany as Church Army Centre Evangelist in Hameln. This was followed by three years in Hull in a parish setting reaching out to youth and children. Since his employment Andy has worked tirelessly to establish projects that enable the Charity to fulfil its goals to reach out to youth and children, to present the gospel in a culturally acceptable way and to bring the young people into relationship with our Lord and Saviour namely, Jesus.
Schools work
There had been a history of sustained schools work during the preceding six years, that is 1996 to 2002, including Assemblies and RE Lessons. In particular there had been set up in four primary schools, something called, Jigsaw Clubs, that it Jesus in Games Stories and Worship. Including each of these elements, each club lasted half an hour and was staffed by a volunteer and so all that was needed by the fulltime worker on arrival in 2002, was to bring the volunteers together so that all were working with the same material at the same time. These clubs have run successfully for three and a half years. In 2006 numbers of children attending had fallen and volunteers have all moved on to other things. This has meant halting the clubs for two terms with the view to revisit this project in 2007. This will mean recruiting new volunteers and looking at new material as the existing material is tired. In 2007 a partnership project has been set up with All Saints Church, which established three after school clubs in the autumn term. These will be extended in 2008.
TBC in Schools
The girl band from innovations came to the schools for a whole week of assemblies followed by a concert at the end of the week, allowed us to expand our number of schools from five to eight as we were to expand into Marple Bridge.
Assemblies/RE lessons
These have continued to be a large part of the work of the Full time worker in, now, five primary schools, with addition of Brabyns School, as well as the senior school, Marple Hall. The RE lessons have been in the main with the Prep school, Brabyns, however it was during 2005/6 academic year the opportunity for us to pilot a scheme to do RE lessons on the Community Bus in two of the Primary schools, namely Rosehill and All Saints. We would look to expand this idea although it is only possible during the spring and summer terms when the weather is more favourable. Schools will be offered this in the New Year once the refurbishment work on the bus is complete.
For three year the full time worker has successfully run a Christingle Week in the lead up to Christmas with each school having the Christingle assembly for the whole school in each case. These provides a valuable opportunity for the Christmas message to be explained in its true context and another opportunity to be in the schools
Kidzkub,
This was established in May of 2003 in Marple. This is a model from Frontline Church in Liverpool but originally from Bill Wilson Ministries in New York. Following the initial presentation evenings a large number of volunteers were recruited. Some 15 adults and young people joined the team for the launch on 1st May 2003. This after school club was to run each Wednesday evening during term time from 6.00pm to 7.30pm. Numbers of children soon reached 25-30 on regular basis occasionally numbers have reached 45. A major part of the Kidzklub model is the visiting programme. This allows members of the team to deliver each week a colouring sheet to the homes of the children attending and thus giving us the opportunity to meet with the families of the children. During the four years that this club has been run in Marple some 500 children have come through the system. In particular we have been able to encourage those going into year 7 in the Sept of each year to stay on as junior leaders. This has proved to be popular and numbers of junior leaders on the team in 2006 reach an all time high of 15. As part of Kidzklub and to encourage new children to come we hold Cinema nights which includes a tuck shop, these have proved to be very effective.
Numbers in 2006 show an average of 25 attending with 5 Adult leaders, 5 Teenage leaders aged 15+ and 15 Junior Leaders aged 12+
This model is clearly working in what is an urban setting here in Marple (Kidzklub is more successful in an Inner City Setting) and will continue despite the choices that are on offer here to most of the children. Numbers of Volunteers needs to be constantly monitored as individuals move on to other things.
December 08 sees the introduction of a club night for junior leaders of the Kidzklub to be held in the Methodist Church. This is to be repeated once a month on the last Monday of each month.
Kidzklub New Mills 2005/06
The full time worker gave time to this project for each Tuesday for a year after recruiting a team and giving them on the job training. Numbers have continued to rise as the team has grown in strength. Since September 2006 the team have been without the full time worker and there continues to be great expectations for the future of the club in New Mills.
Easter Holiday Clubs, 2004, 2005, & 2006.
These were introduced by the full time worker in 2004 and have continued to be very popular with the children and each year the project has been repeated. The regular home for the Holiday Club has over the years become the Marple Independent Evangelical Church in Queens Street. The Club runs each day in Holy Week with the children attending for most of the morning and ending with a service on the Good Friday morning taken by all the Children with all the members of the church being invited plus Parents and Grandparents of the children themselves. It is planned that this project would continue as it gives a good opportunity for us to build on the connection with the children and their families, which has been established during the Kidzklub the rest of the year.
Holiday Clubs in the Park, 2003, 2004, 2005.
This project was introduced in 2003 when a number of tents and a caravan went to two parks in Marple over the period of a week. Such was the success of the project that it was repeated in the following two years. In those two years the Community Bus had arrived and this formed the backdrop for the Club in the park work. 2006 did not have a club in the park, as the bus was busy on its Trek, ‘Catch the Buzz’ which took it 200 miles around the country. It is planned that the Holiday Club in the Park project will take place in 2007 with the return if the Bus
The Community Bus, established in 2004 (Evenings in the Park)
The Bus, as mentioned above and in addition to its work as the backdrop for the Holiday Club in the Park, was purchased in 2004 to establish a project that would reach out to youth in the community. Modelled on the Church Army Bus Project it was taken each week to the Memorial park in Marple to meet with the young people as a mobile hangout. Equipped with Café, music, play-stations and much more, this project has allowed the fulltime worker and a team of dedicated volunteers to build relationships with marginalized and difficult young people. The project grew to such an extent that in the May of 2005 through a grant from Connexions in Stockport we were able to employ Mr Nick Higgins as a Part time Community Worker whose work focus is the Bus Project. The work has also led us to be able to build relationships with the families of the young people we meet on the bus and offer help and support in the community. The help and support has included what can only be described as Social Action. We act as appointed adult for the young people attending court, cleared houses and acted as facilitator between the family and the
social services to get much needed remedial work carried out on the houses. We have conducted Parent meetings to offer support and advise where appropriate and have entered into partnerships with the Stockport youth service, Stockport youth offending team as well as Local Action team and the Police. The project has gained something of a reputation for getting things done and this has led to us being asked to take referrals from the Youth Service and the Youth offending team as well as being asked to attend multi agency meetings in the community and in the schools.
The project has also become a model that others would like to duplicate and so we have become a resource to other areas, some of these have included Sunderland, The Hope Valley in Derbyshire with the most recent enquiry coming from the Isle of Man. The result of this for the future is that we could be letting our bus to other areas at a fee, which would allow the project to become self-sustaining. Hope Valley project is to begin with a 13 week pilot starting mid January 2008.
Catch the Buzz, established in 2005, Trek July 2006
Was the brainchild of the Full time worker in an effort to build on the idea of becoming a resource to other areas and at the same time to engage in Fund raising by selling advertising space on the side of the bus. The idea was in addition to the sponsorship, to take the bus from Marple north to JohnO’Groats down the east coast highway as far south as London then to turn west to Land’s End then up the west coast highway back to Marple. All of this was to take 19 days with stopovers to be made each evening in communities where the bus would be modelled with young people and volunteers from that community being asked to come and visit the bus. The Full time worker was joined by a team of six volunteers, three for the whole length of the Trek and three joined at various locations to drive the bus a section of the journey. The result of the project was more successful in promotion than actually raising much-needed funds although the costs of the trek were covered. We did gain valuable publicity and raised the awareness of the potential of a bus project in a community. A journal of the Trek has been produced, entitled ‘A Captain’s Log’ and is available on request.
Cycloan
Launched in the Sept of 2006 and the brainchild of our Part time Community Worker, Cycloan aims to offer exercise and healthy activities using cycling to both the young people we meet as well as the wider community by taking in second hand cycles, refurbishing them and loaning them out at a small fee to its members. Connections have been made with the primary Care Trust in Stockport to be able to offer a service under the provisions of the government initiative ‘Cycling on Prescription’ Both our paid workers are to train as instructors to the British Cycling national Standard in order to deliver the service. This would also offer us another opportunity of income to the Charity as this is paid for by the PCT. In addition the National Standard would mean that we would be able to deliver cycling proficiency to the schools in the community. A project has been set up to allow young offenders to assist us in repairing the cycles this is a partnership between the Charity and the Youth Offending office in Stockport.
www.charismarple.co.uk
In 2006 we were successful in establishing our website. Following the demand for information from the wider public, the web site is a great way of meeting that demand. Still in its early stages work continues to make the site much more interactive and entertaining. It is hoped that information can be downloaded with links to pages for the young people themselves to interact with.
Personal comments by the Author.
It has been my privilege to service is this capacity as Youth and Children’s Outreach Worker. My thanks go to the Trustees for their faith in me to explore what was, what is and what will be the will of God for this work in Marple and beyond. The job has clearly grown as God has blessed the work. There is, I believe, still much to be done and much that the Lord wishes to be achieved. The down side has always been the fund raising, which is a constant task. Again the Trustees have shown great faith in allowing projects to get underway in Faith and see the Lord’s hand at work in providing for all our needs. The positives have been many, not least, the way that we have been accepted by the number of secular agencies and the number of cases that are being referred to us. That speaks of how we are able to present our faith in words and actions to the community, in a way that is culturally acceptable and relevant. Above all it has been the commitment and dedication of the many volunteers that have come forward that, apart from God Himself, have made all this possible. It is my feelings that the Charity has become exactly what the Lord intended and will go on for many years to come.
Looking to 2008 and beyond we will need to consider employment of additional workers as the demand for our work increases. We need to consider setting up teams of schools workers, to train them in assemblies and RE lessons and the after school clubs. We need to further engage with other communities around the country as a resource offering support, advice and practical help. Expanding the fleet of buses would also be a possibility as the demand increases.
Finally and most importantly we need to step up a gear in our goal to make Christ known and to see lives transformed by His love as we engage with the community on all levels.
Capt Andy Settle
Youth and Children’s Outreach Worker
Charis Marple | 
