Please note that the West Midlands Synod does not have a Children's and Youth Development Officer at present, as Richard Knott is now working for the East Midlands Synod in this role. A joint gathering for young people is being organised for 15-17 September 2023. Please email [email protected] for information.

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Your voice matters

Dear friends,
As your Children’s and Youth Development Officer I have been tasked with four key objectives as set out by the Synod prior to my appointment.

• To encourage the training and support of children and young people, in both personal development and participation in the structures of the church.
• To encourage Ministers and local churches to develop links and create opportunities for young adults and children to be included in initiatives within the church and the community served by the church, in partnership with Areas and Synod.
• To provide training, support, information about resources, for people working with children and young people.
• To develop and support a Youth Executive as a forum for young adults to meet together, share with each other and to provide opportunities to input into decision making bodies within the Synod and wider church.

I am keen make this opportunity to ask you for your views on how this role can best help you in your churches to encourage and develop the ministry and mission with children, young people and young adults.  I know that there are children and youth leaders who have hopes, dreams and aspirations in what they would like to do.  And ministers, who would love to be able to welcome all ages in their congregations and are hoping to develop what currently happens, or instigate something new, whilst also responding to the ongoing effects of the pandemic.  And there will be some churches who do not have contact with children and young people but would love to, this invitation is for you also.
It is hoped therefore that whatever is planned and developed by the Synod for the engagement among children and young people is the best fit for what churches need and see as a priority.  We have set up an on-line survey on the Synod website.  Please share these links as widely as possible.  Some young children or those unfamiliar with using technology this way may need assistance to complete the survey, you can also request a paper copy from me or from the Synod Office.

For children 10 years of age and under
                                         (https://forms.gle/aZA2M167Y4R8HJVi7)
For young people aged 11-17 years
                                         (https://forms.gle/6QqyU5qwFdHHW4yP7)
For young adults 18-25years
                                        (https://forms.gle/L9dLtZUGNgzpsFhj6)
For Ministers and other Leaders or interested people
                                        (https://forms.gle/B8EkBsmijQ4nugbj6)

I intend to gather all responses by 15th February 2023, so please make sure you complete the survey before this date.

Please spend some time to prayerfully consider your answers.  Please also pass this on to anyone who has an interest or involvement with children, young people or families.  We would love to know what you as part of the West Midlands Synod think and how we can best serve you in the future.  And we will use these answers to prayerfully consider our planning for children and youth.
If you would prefer a paper copy or need any help completing the questionnaire, please get in touch with the Synod Office or with Richard Knott who is currently on part-time secondment in the Synod he can be reached via email [email protected] or call 07577-867024.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to this.

Richard

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Meet your CYDO

Want to keep in touch?

Richard is producing a regular mailing with news and resources.  Fill in the form below to subscribe to the newsletter.

Shrewsbury gain the Children & YOUTH friendly church scheme award

Congratulations to Shrewsbury URC for becoming the latest church in the Synod to gain the CYFC Scheme accreditation.

Read on for their story of how they completed the assessment process.

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A short account of Shrewsbury URC's
​road to becoming a
children and youth friendly church

Shrewsbury URC is a relatively large church but with a small Junior Church. This low attendance of young families has been a concern for us for many years. We are not unique in this way. During lockdown we tried to keep in touch with our young families, both those who came to Junior Church and those who came to our Messy Church. However, this proved very difficult and so when we emerged from lockdown the Junior Church staff felt we were even further behind making meaningful links with these families.  We had been apart for so long even as a team. Would the previous staff want to continue? Do we need to canvass for more people to get involved in children's work at our church?

Our minister sensed our low spirits and suggested we should consider taking part in the URC Children's Work Review process; a chance for us to review what we do in all the groups we have that involve children and young families. For us this meant our Toddler Group, Junior Church and our Young Peoples group. Richard Knott, the URC West Midlands Children and Youth advisor, was invited. He was very flexible and  offered us three day sessions. It was my job to gather representatives from our different groups and impress on them that this was a way forward for all our work with children and young families. Our first session arrived and we had a really thought provoking session that was focused on "Where we are now." At times I found it hard not to push on to discussing new approaches for how we could best move forward but for the most part Richard insisted that we, in this first session, stuck to assessing where we were . It quickly became apparent that this part of the review was vital for our confidence. We talked about what we had achieved, a lot, and it was just the tonic we needed.
For our second session, I canvassed people who were linked to our children's work or just had shown an interest in the past and found two new people. Our numbers rose! This increase really helped to cement us as a team of people with a common interest in children and youth work within our church.

In both sessions, Richard posed open-ended questions that encouraged the group to examine different areas. It was discussion-based so all those present had a chance to talk and feel totally involved. Richard wrote notes on what we discussed and this was fed back to us a few days later. I felt the questions allowed us to grow as a team linking up the three main groups in our church related to children, families and young people. The review process allowed us to examine what we could do to be more effective and that now, with larger involvement within the church community it was possible to move forward. It gave us hope!

For the final third session we decided to have as an evening meeting involving our minister and another member of our worship team who is in training. We could now present the proposed next steps that had come out of the review and to hear their views on those proposals. This was very useful as we gained wisdom from their insight and understanding of the whole church congregation and how our next steps could be achieved whilst bringing the whole church into a better understanding of children, families and youth work.

We are so pleased that we have now been awarded the URC Children & Youth and Family friendly church award. The process was very rewarding and has resulted in more people becoming engaged with children's work. We now have a set of steps that will lead us forward to even better provision for children, their families and young people in our church; to truly grow in faith together with the whole of a wider congregation.

Some of the Shrewsbury team who helped them towards the CYFC award. L-R: Penny Lloyd, Meriel Chippindale, Di Scroggins (front), Joy Hutchings, Sheen Bacon.

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training opportunities

URC Youth Website

Facebook       Cydo Urcwestmids        (https://www.facebook.com/cydo.urcwestmids.7)

Contact
Children and Youth Development Officer
West Midlands Synod 
Email [email protected] 

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What does a CYDO do?

​The role of the Children’s and Youth Development Officer has a number of key tasks as set out by the Synod

To encourage the training and support of children and young people, in both personal development and participation in the structures of the church.

To encourage Ministers and local churches to develop links and create opportunities for young adults and children to be included in initiatives within the church and the community served by the church, in partnership with Areas and Synod.

To provide training, support, information about resources, for people working with children and young people.

To develop and support a Youth Executive as a forum for young adults to meet together, share with each other and to provide opportunities to input into decision making bodies within the Synod and wider church.

a question to consider

What would you most like your Children and Youth Development Officer to offer you and your church? You can send your answers on a postcard to the Synod Office or email [email protected] 

The assembly children's and youth team

The Children’s and Youth team at Church house offer a variety of resources and support to URC congregations via www.urc.org.uk/our-work/children-and-youth (link opens in a new window), these include;

• A resource page with ideas and links to resources for you to explore.
• A bi-monthly newsletter from the Children's and Youth Work team which you can sign up to and have it sent to you regularly by email.
• Events and Opportunities for children, young people and leaders to be involved in.
• News from the Lundie Memorial Award. And how to nominate children and young people.
• Grants. Our small grants fund is one way that the Children’s and Youth Work Committee supports activities and experiences for children and youth as well as the training of existing and potential children and youth workers.