Find Your Fire – Doorsteps Youth Work – Under 5s Provision – Supporting Churches – Doorsteps Blog
A few years ago, we felt compelled to ask how our global experience could be appropriately shared within the UK, without duplicating the excellent work already taking place.
We listened to the views of children, young people, parents, vicars, police, social care workers, teachers, youth workers and health workers. With this information we mapped the most significant issues affecting children and young people in Oxfordshire and the response of local churches to these needs.
The study, entitled ‘Doorsteps’, gathered data from over 200 people, and found the five major issues facing local children, young people and families to be: unstable family life and struggling parents; low self-esteem; lack of vision or aspiration for life; difficulty entering employment and household poverty. Click here to read the full research report.
The research highlighted a mismatch between churches’ aspirations and what they are actually doing. Considerable time is spent on activities with young people who already come to church, and are not generally as vulnerable as some others in the local community. However, three-quarters of churches surveyed wanted both to make an informed response to the needs of children and young people, and to have a more meaningful connection with those doing similar work.
Our work is twofold:
- on-the-ground project work
- empowering and equipping churches in their work with children and young people.
Click on the links at the top to find out more about our work or email doorsteps@viva.org to speak to one of the team.