Youth and Children Enabler

Thanks to generous funding from the Lord Crewe’s Charity, we are able to build a small team comprising a Youth and Children’s Mission Coordinator and two Youth and Children Enablers to work with younger people in South East Northumberland.

We seek a range of people who know and love God and who can bring their gifts and talents to this exciting opportunity in South East Northumberland.

Based at Ashington Holy Sepulchre, the team will work across the parishes of Ashington Holy Sepulchre, Seaton Hirst, Cresswell & Lynemouth and Woodhorn with Newbiggin to build up the profile of youth and children’s work. The parish communities have a passion for seeing young people reach their full potential and feel deeply that the bedrock of them reaching their full potential is with Christ at the centre.

All of the parishes within the locality are involved in working closely together to develop their mission. The structure to facilitate this closer working is called a Bishop’s Mission Order and referred to as a BMO. The BMO is intended to promote outreach and collaboration and strengthen links between community out-reach and the life of the worshipping communities. The work of the Youth and Children Enablers will be an integral strand of this missional purpose.

The area boasts five Church of England primary/middle schools and one Church of England secondary. This has a sixth form and a centre for specialist provision for children and young people with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties. The Youth and Children Enabler will work in and support both faith and community schools, developing projects that share Christian values in a way that is appropriate for the needs and context of each school.

Some young people in the area have complex needs and the Youth and Children Enablers will need to have an empathy and understanding of the nature of young people experiencing challenges. A key requirement for each Youth and Children Enabler is the ability to demonstrate to young people: (i) reliability; (ii) inner resilience; (iii) strength and positivity.

The Children and Youth Team is a small, dedicated team reporting to the Director of Mission and Ministry. The Team helps to connect and support churches across the diocese to:

The strength of this team is the varied experience and skill built up over many years of working with children, youth and churches. The Team has a wide overview of the national vision and is part of the conversations to impact culture change moving forward. The Team encourages church communities to embody the vision of growing younger and more diverse and supports churches to see their potential while understanding the uniqueness of their own place in community. All young people should have a place where they can explore faith, know Jesus for themselves and ask questions within a safe environment. The Diocese of Newcastle wants all church communities to embrace young people not as their future congregation but their congregations of today, to reach out with boldness and seek to share the gospel creatively with young people.

The Team is involved with many exciting projects across the diocese including MINE, The Roost, ReNew, Ignite Alnwick, Pioneering, and more. The Team very much see the Youth and Children’s Mission Coordinator linking up with others for training, support, professional development and prayer days. Building a network of high-quality youth and children’s work across the region.

The Team will offer practical support and involvement to the Youth and Children’s Mission Coordinator, including liaising with and introducing the new Coordinator and the Enablers to churches and communities around the area. The Team will help to share good practice and give time to the induction process and offer training and resourcing if needed to upskill or refresh while exploring new opportunities that support the work. The Team will be responsible for providing regular supervisions at various levels to support the Coordinator and Enablers in their new roles.

• Work alongside the four parishes to support current children and youth groups.

• Develop relationships with the four parishes and schools to expand the youth and children’s provision in the area.

• Work together with the Diocesan Children and Youth Team and parishes to develop new strands of work.

• Have a good knowledge of safeguarding practice and the safer recruitment processes.

• Complete all safeguarding learning requirements identified for the post.

• Need a confident knowledge of developing new worship opportunities that fit the community needs.

• Take up opportunities for professional development.

• Develop good working relationships with church communities to develop new teams of volunteers

• Have a good understanding of the need to work contextually for the area.

• Develop new creative ways to engage with children young people and their families while building authentic relationships to enable them to experience faith for themselves.

• Bring children and young people to Baptism and Confirmation.

• Support and evaluate project aims alongside the team.

• Attend regular meetings with the team and local parishes where necessary.