Our goal: To provide a positive focus in the West Swindon community for young people. We will provide a programme with an accent on developing relationships which will support their emotional, social, physical  and spiritual development. We will enable them to develop their gifts, skills and relationships through a sustainable programme which meets their needs.

 

Our Strategy: We will provide for three modes of activity within the programme, as follows:

 

1)Discover and develop: Based on research carried out with young people locally, we will provide activities free or at low cost which will interest them, develop their skills and abilities and help them to grow in self-esteem and self-expression.  The Government's "Every Child Matters" outcomes will be at the heart of our programme.

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2)Explore: We will present diverse opportunities for young people to develop spiritually through exploring questions such as “Who am I?”; “How do my actions affect other people?” ;“What is the purpose of my life?” We anticipate this will lead to involvement in practical projects, helping in the community and greater global awareness.

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3)Mature and Grow: We will encourage those who we have seen grow in maturity, to explore  opportunities for further learning, training and leadership within the project and beyond.

 

Sustainable work means we will train and support youth workers, we will train and support young people to act as mentors and leaders.

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Geographic scope: We will work primarily with young people living in West Swindon & the Lydiards. We will operate activities and groups in local secondary schools, Greendown and Bradon Forest (subject to agreement with the schools); at  Shaw Church; or in other local venues. We will seek to form partnerships with special needs departments of schools in Swindon and North Wilts, offering them out of school multi-media workshops.

 

Timescale: This project is initially for 3 years, to be reviewed annually, (commenced January ’08). In January 2011 it was agreed to continue for another 3 years.

 

Success criteria:
1)All three modes of activity (1-3 above) are present within one community of young people.
2)Young people are free to move between different groups.
3)Young people in the community value the activities and opportunities.

 

We will measure success against our goals and will evaluate input from young people involved as well as using external evaluators.

 

Funding: We will seek support and funding for the project from: local and national trusts and charities; local churches; local government ; local corporations; individuals eg members and parents.

 

Finance: All monies raised will go towards furthering the aims and objectives of “emerge”.
The Treasurer will keep up-to-date financial records and make financial reports to the Committee. He/she will be responsible for arranging annual examination of accounts. There will be two authorised signatories on the emerge account.

 

Management: A team composed of adult representatives and youth representatives involved with the project will oversee

day-to-day management and will meet termly. The Programme Manager will be responsible for recruiting volunteer workers to the project; implementing staff training; overseeing youth work; developing the programme in conjunction with Volunteers and Young People; managing the budget and associated fund raising or grant applications; commissioning publicity; providing verbal and written progress reports to the Partnership Council and emerge Management Team.

 

Leaders: West Swindon Church Partnership will find and release youth leaders to staff the project.  We will also work in partnership with appropriate external and local agencies to utilise their skills and leadership resources.

 

Child Protection: The Church Partnership Child Protection policy “Safe from Harm” will be implemented by all working on the project. All leaders will be required to provide two references and to undergo an enhanced CRB check before joining the leadership team.

 

Health and Safety Procedures will be developed suitable for those activities to be undertaken.

 

Training: The Programme manager will be responsible for sourcing or providing youth work training for leaders and will be responsible for supervision of all youth leaders.