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Church puts its money where its mouth is to connect with youth

The Church of England has launched a £1 million national initiative to connect young people with the Christian message, with the support of a member of charitable trusts. Among those generously backing the five-year scheme are the Henry Smith Charity, the Laing Family trusts and the James Trust

Following a successful pilot last year, the Archbishop's Council has given the go-ahead for the Church of England's Youth Evangelism Fund, a key part of its Youth Strategy. The Chair of the Fund's steering group, the Rt Revd David James, Bishop of Bradford, has today announced the area

of the country to be covered by the first year of the initiative and the cash that will be made available.

This year, eight areas - selected on the basis of population size and the resources already available to the corresponding diocese - will benefit from £200,000 of funding in the first phase of a scheme that hopes eventually to expand its horizons to the whole country.

The Diocese of Durham, Bradford, Newcastle, Sheffield, Wakefield, Southwell and Nottingham, York and Birmingham will receive an average of £25,000 each, to be distributed to projects that show the potential to engage more young people in the life of the Church.

"This fund has the potential to reap much more than is sown" comments Bishop David. "There is real evidence from the pilot study that the fund can help transform the youth ministry strategy of local churches. Christian young people are full of creative ideas for reaching out to their peers, and we want to resource and help them. It is my firm belief that the Youth Evangelism Fund is one of the most exciting national projects around the Church at the moment - which is why I'm very glad to be involved!"

The Bishop and the rest of the steering group are confident that the majority of the projects will emerge from parishes and youth groups. Each successful application will be expected to demonstrate how they plan to use current best practice and effective local consultation in providing relevant engaging activity for under-20s. Examples of how money was used during the pilot project include:

At Leyton, North East London, in Chelmsford Diocese, St Catherine's Church used a grant to purchase equipment and promotional material for a series of film nights on Saturday evenings: "Its been a great start - a relatively small number of attendees, but all but one of them are non-Christians. The young people themselves had a great night and seem to have really made themselves at home in the church," says St Catherine's Vicar, the Revd Paul Reily.

In Hastings, Sussex, Chichester Diocese used cash from the fund to support an event that got young volunteers involved in dredging a drainage ditch and renewing a forest path to enhance a local nature trail, and laying out a flower bed on a local housing association estate. The Revd Richard Mortimer commented: "Many of those who came were from outside the church and their interest in the faith has grown as a result. Our youth work has been consolidated tremendously by the event and continues to grow numerically as a result of being perceived as a 'happening place'. We now get 20 people to our Sunday morning youth groups and regularly have 50 at our midweek groups, many from unchurched backgrounds."

If churches and youth groups in this year's eight dioceses are interested in developing an idea for potential funding by the scheme, they should contact their local Diocesan Youth Officer.