If you were around during the 1980s, you may remember the trend of t-shirts, emblazoned with slogans and life advice. “Douglas Coupland, the author credited with coining the term “Generation X”, wrote many memorable slogans such as, “Adventure without risk is Disneyland” and “Economy of scale is ruining choice”.

Sadly, during a time of recession or economic hardship, those who most feel the effects are those who are young or the most vulnerable in society. Recent reports have shown that this is currently so in the UK. As FYT, we believe that one of our roles is to support young people on the edge of society, those with challenging circumstances, and the youth workers who work with them.

We live in a time when choices are considered to be crucial to our self-determination. We can decide whether we want large or small fries and we are able to order a drink to our precise specification – mine’s a skinny, double-shot cappuccino, extra hot, with caramel. This culture of choice is being expanded through to which type of school we wish to send our children to – or, if we don’t like the options, we are being encouraged to start our own school.

However, for many of the young people FYT work with, a broad range of aspirations is not available. Their circumstances may mean that they may

not be able to make those choices.

In FYT, we believe in journeying with young people to create community for all. As a team, we believe that the world can and should be a just and equal place where people fully understand their own value, reach their potential and connect with themselves, one another, the world around them and God.

FYT wants to achieve this is by continually seeking the next “edge” where young people are in need and unreached, even when this is uncomfortable, difficult and takes us to new places. We are committed to standing and acting in solidarity with young people and supporting them and those who work with them. We don’t believe society, politicians or the media should stigmatise the poor over the economic situation, as those who have the least are not the cause of the problem.

Instead we offer young people more choices and help them to see more possibilities available to them. For example the Out4Good project (see 3rd page) has journeyed with young offenders to increase their life choices as they have reduced their offending. In FYT, we believe in real community and we continue to strive to see the Kingdom of God become more present in the lives of all those we have the privilege to work with.

OUT4GOODRECEIVES FUNDING

STREETSPACE: THE GATHERING

MAKING SENSE OF THE FRAGMENTS

2

PIPWILSON

content

3

4

6

CHOOSE LIFE,CHOOSECOMMUNITY

7

NEW STAFF

8

SNIPPETS NEWS

SUMMER 2013/News

Alastair Jones, CEO FYT

www.fyt.org.uk / frontier@fyt.org.uk 1

I think this quote from Reinhold Niebuhr sums up how we are all called to live our lives of faith and certainly reflects our experience at FYT:

Living one day at a time;Enjoying one moment at a time;Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;Taking, as He did, this sinful worldas it is, not as I would have it;Trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will.

Just now, we have encouragements as we engage with the challenge of our mission to young people at risk, so please give thanks for:

z The great news of the new funding for Out4Good which will allow us to expand our work to young women as well as young men.

» Pray for the recruitment of a new Project Leader

» Pray for Shez, the Project Worker, as she continues with the work of Out4Good in the interim.

z The 41 projects associated with StreetSpace, engaging with young people in England, Scotland and Wales; for their commitment, their passion and their understanding of young people’s lives and needs.

z Our new Administration and Finance Officer, Cassie Humphries, and the skills and energy she is bringing to her job.

» Pray for her as she settles into her job and grapples with all of the processes and systems.

PIP WILSON Mrs Beautiful was 21 when we married. I was 25. One year to that day, we moved from our St. Helens terraced house and church youth work to become House Parents at a Boy’s Approved School for young offenders. While we were there, we had a visit from Will Barker and when we moved on to run a Hell’s Angels Club, we were visited by Jim Punton. These were my early days of being contacted and supported by FYT. Later at the Mayflower, in London’s East End, FYT was central in my life.

Life was tough in this frontier, inner-city youth work. I remember Mrs Beautiful being sick in the toilet because she was picking up tension from me as I tried to live justly amongst gangs, violence in the street and club and terrible racist violence. Jim Punton, FYT regional worker, visited our team of 40 regularly as we strove to live out shalom as vulnerable, incomplete humans.

I always remember going to visit Jim one day, a battered drained

youth worker, and saying to him, “I don’t feel spiritual anymore”. He paused and then said, “I am glad”.

He went on to say that I was going through change, like a boat setting sail through troubled waters and only becoming safe when stepping onto dry land. My awarenesses, skills, theology were in rough seas and that was ok because that is ‘change’. WOW.

Times have changed, but in my current mission of conducting training and 1-2-1 sessions for frontline workers, I see that the needs haven’t. I see FYT as a vital support to Christian workers as they develop their wholeness alongside their mission of being in helping relationships with young people. Seeking the shalom of the city… in their own lives and those of others.

I say, “growth does not reside in a place called comfortable” and many workers are willingly doing that, living that, daily. What they need is support, by gathering together alongside

the experienced and uniquely qualified FYT staff. The needs are largely like my own past experiences, but culturally transposed into 2013 and beyond… I love the word beyond.

I ended my first book “Gutter Feelings” (40 years of my life - recently extended to include the next 100!) with this: “Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you .... and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your own shalom.” (Jeremiah 29; 6-7)

Ian Sparks

PRAYERS FROM THE CHAIR

www.pipwilson.com

Pip is a long-time friend

and supporter of FYT

/ News – Summer 20132

OUT4GOOD PROJECT RECEIVES 3 YEARS’ FUNDING FROM THE BIG LOTTERY FUND FYT are very pleased to announce that the Out4Good (O4G) project in Colchester has been awarded a grant from the Big Lottery Fund to continue its highly successful work with young offenders for a further 3 years. In addition, we have received funding to extend our work, which has just been with males, to include female beneficiaries.

On release from custody, young offenders need somewhere to go, something to do and someone to help them. O4G provides this for young offenders – helping to reduce reoffending rates, enabling young people to improve their life choices and chances, and improving the likelihood that these young people can reach their full potential.

Over the past 3 years, O4G has supported 83 young male offenders, providing specialist mentoring and purposeful activity to support these young men in addressing their complex needs and issues. Of the 83 young men supported, 76% have not re-offended and 94% have reduced their offending behaviour.

O4G provides floating support and accommodation by leasing properties, providing bed spaces for up to 7 young men at any one time and will be extending this work to young women over the next few months. Residents see staff on a daily basis and are assessed regularly. They are closely monitored for substance misuse and a support plan is built using a self-assessment tool. Beneficiaries are helped to register with a GP and are signposted to other relevant agencies who can best meet their individual needs.

O4G staff also liaise with the probation service, police, health workers and other agencies to provide a joined-up approach. Most young people stay in O4G supported accommodation for 4 to 6 months, after which they are helped to find suitable independent accommodation.

As well as receiving grant-funding for O4G, FYT has been supporting this project for over 3 years and has provided significant additional support for young people at risk. This has been made possible by you, our supporters and we are very thankful to you for this.

After leading and developing O4G over the past 2½ years, Jeannette Hewes is leaving her role as Project Leader to care for her father-in-law. We and the young people who have been served by O4G are indebted to her for her service and all she has contributed to FYT during that time. This means we have been recruiting for a Project Leader as well as 2 Project Workers, with an application deadline of 12th July. Please pray that God will guide the process so that the right people are appointed.

Jeannette Hewes

Out4Good is grateful to receive funding from Big Lottery Reaching

Communities Fund

www.fyt.org.uk / frontier@fyt.org.uk 3

STREETSPACE:THE GATHERING AND BEYOND You would think it would be difficult for a youth worker, who knows hundreds of young people and has access to various training workshops, a management committee and a wide social media contact base, to feel isolated, misunderstood or alone. However, for those who are working with young people on the edge and who are pushing towards the edge in their own thinking and approaches, these feelings are common, so it was such a joy to hear the consistent feedback about how good it was to be with like-minded people at this year’s StreetSpace Gathering.

James wrote, “It was great to be in a place where we didn’t have to compete to have the best youth club, most attendees, loudest speakers, newest worship songs being sung, but where, even though we didn’t know each other much beforehand, we all kind of knew how and what it was like being often misunderstood on the edge.”

We deliberately don’t call it a conference, or training, but run the whole event as a Gathering of like-minded people, passionate people. We don’t invite big name speakers. The passionate, like-minded people in the StreetSpace community are all experts who excel at getting alongside young people on the edge, so we facilitate a Gathering, a creative space, where these experts can be themselves, reflect together, learn together, cry and laugh together, where they can understand and be understood.

One of things I love about StreetSpace is the privilege of hearing the exciting stories of young people changing and growing when they come into contact with StreetSpace projects on the ground. For example, one young person recently reflected

on some mentoring and said it had helped him “get off drugs and speak at a council meeting”. Another project will make sure that the young people who normally receive free school meals will not be hungry this summer, because they will give out over 50 meals every day on their estate.

Inspired by these and other tales, we made this March’s Gathering theme “Stories”. We ‘borrowed’ an idea from Ian Mayhew and Andrew Grinnell, who facilitated the FYT team retreat – we gave each project a book with an empty cover on which they could write a short history of how they came into being. It was a great way to capture a snapshot of the 30-or-so projects that attended; a biography of who was involved and the story of what had happened.

True stories are powerful things. It would be easy to misuse people’s stories – telling them to sensationalize your work or make what you do seem more important, more fundable or more rooted – but to do so is to abuse the relationship and trust. Stories that impact us are those connected to real people in real situations facing real issues, and it was privilege to hear not just the stories, but also how those stories were shared, without sensationalism or ego, but with passion, rootedness and reality.

The months since the Gathering have been hectic as StreetSpace continues to grow. There are now over 40 projects in the network and several of these are growing and planting their own satellite projects in their areas. Throughout May and June, John and I

/ News – Summer 20134

have been busy visiting projects for what we call P and O (Process and Outcomes) meetings. These are about helping projects to use our nine stage process to think about each group of young people they are working with and plan how to keep going forward.

The workers on the ground are great at building relationships with some of hardest to reach young people, which can be time consuming and hard work, so we offer to meet each project three times a year to take a breath, reflect and plan ahead. At these meetings, I am constantly surprised at how the workers underestimate the impact they have had on young people and the outcomes achieved.

A typical P and O meeting will include asking how often drugs issues have up, how many important incidents have occurred, and nine times out of ten someone will mention (as if in passing) a life-enhancing moment for a young person, or how they have been supporting a particular individual, not recognising the tremendous help they have been. It is not that they undervalue the young people, but more that they are a part of their lives – it is hard to see the plot changing when you are in the middle of the story.

Even though we have good contact with projects via social media, we have experienced the importance

of face-to-face contact with workers on the ground through

the Gathering or P and O meetings, so this summer we’ve found another way of creating such an opportunity. I have purchased a campervan and, as I am due in Scotland in August to speak a Church of Scotland event, I will be travelling up one side of the country and down the other to keep hearing the stories of hope evolving on the ground.

Richard Passmore

This coming year FYT turns 50! This is a great story, worth celebrating, and next year’s StreetSpace Gathering will coincide with some of the FYT celebration events. If you are able to attend the Dreams into Reality birthday event in March (13th -16th) 2014, you will have the chance to hear some stories first-hand, from local StreetSpace projects and the whole FYT team.

www.fyt.org.uk / frontier@fyt.org.uk 5

JESUS IN THE CITYMANCHESTER6-8 SEPTEMBER 2013“Jesus in the City” is the UK Urban Mission Congress, held every 3 years in a different UK city. FYT has a long history of involvement in the organisation of this conference and Alastair Jones, who lives in Stretford, Manchester, is part of the conference team.

The 2013 event, “Making Sense of the Fragments”, will be primarily for people involved in urban ministry across the UK, but is also open to anyone interested in learning about or supporting ministry and mission in inner-city and housing estate areas.

We lead increasingly fragmented lives in fragmented communities and fragmented cities. There are big differences in wealth, health and life-chances as people share the same city but live very separate lives amidst huge social, ethnic and religious diversity.

Where are the people of God in this picture? Are we adding to the fragmentation or are we affecting it for the better?

What part can the Church play in bringing the fragments together and creating a new Kingdom-inspired picture?

“Making Sense of the Fragments” will be an opportunity to come together with others to share experiences, reflect together, celebrate each other’s stories and be inspired to action. It’s an event for all who are active in urban ministry and mission and for all those who care about the fragmented city of the twenty-first century.

“The urban context itself is fragmented, and possibly more so than ever, in both social and economic terms. Huge disparities in wealth, income, life-experience and opportunity, with rich and poor within the city (and more generally) increasingly living in geographically separate communities and having totally different experiences of what it means to live in the city. Huge diversity in social, ethnic and religious terms... If we are to do anything in an urban context we need to not just see this fragmented reality (which many of us are fantastically good at not seeing most of the time), but work harder to make sense of it, in terms of mapping the various realities, understanding the connections between the fragments and working out what being seekers of justice (or life in all its fullness) means in this context.”

Niall Cooper (JITC 2013 Exec.)

/ News – Summer 20136

NEW STAFF

STREETSPACE SCOTLAND:CLARE MCCORMACKWe are delighted to introduce our new worker in Scotland! Clare is based in Paisley (just outside of Glasgow) and is StreetSpace’s Scottish Development Worker. She is looking to encourage and support new and existing StreetSpace projects and the wider community of practice in Scotland.

She has worked as a youth and community development worker for the past 7 years, and gained her professional qualification in community education while working at her local church and starting a locally-based youth charity. It is fair to say that she enjoys a challenge and loves to be busy!

When she isn’t working for StreetSpace, she works with Interfaith Glasgow encouraging dialogue and common action between young people of different faiths in the city, and is a charity director at Create Paisley which grows intentional community and encourages young people to get involved, be reflective and get creative in their local area.

Day-to-day she is motivated by seeing the results of young people being empowered to have their voices heard, and seeing what happens when young people are encouraged to take action and make a difference in ways they may not have thought possible.

Clare is looking forward to all the positive opportunities for development and is excited about seeing and supporting many different fresh expressions of church around in Scotland.

FYT’S NEW ADMIN AND FINANCE OFFICER:CASSIE HUMPHRIES We are delighted to have a new Administration and Finance Officer for FYT. As she is the first person many of you will have contact with in the office, we are certain you would like to know a little bit more about her.

Before joining us at FYT, Cassie managed a project within a mental health charity, based in Warwickshire, supporting people with mental health problems to lead independent and fulfilling lives. Internally, she also developed a Peer Support programme, encouraging social inclusion and autonomy within the community. Cassie is passionate about helping people with mental health issues and campaigning against stigma and labelling within society, particularly on behalf of young people and their families.

In her spare time, Cassie is connected to her local Cub Scout group, where she develops and runs programmes for young people that promote creativity, diversity and development, both within the community and nationally. Cassie is inspired continually by the growth and confidence of the young people, particularly that of vulnerable members of the pack.

We wish Martin Stewart well as he moves on from his role with StreetSpace/FYT and Urban Hope in Islington

www.fyt.org.uk / frontier@fyt.org.uk 7

FOR REGULAR NEWS AND UPDATES:

Frontier Youth Trust is a company limited by guarantee. Company no. 3264908. Charity no. 1059328 and in Scotland SC043239

CONTACT:Frontier Youth Trust (S15b)St. George’s Community Hub Great Hampton RowNewtown, Birmingham B19 3JG

Office: 0121 687 3505

Email: frontier@fyt.org.uk

Follow us on @FYTtweets (we like to follow supporters back)

And check the Website: www.fyt.org.uk

Like us on Facebook: fb.me/frontieryouthtrust

SNIPPETS NEWS

COUNTDOWN TO CAMP!It won’t be long before a whole bunch of people will be loading up their cars and buses and heading up to Cleethorpes for the start of Frontier Camps 2013! Right now the sun is shining(ish), so we are free from the fears of drowning in mud that last year threatened and looking forward for a week of working and playing together. This year we’re taking inspiration from “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!” for a week of jungle- and survival-themed activities as well as looking at some of the people in the Bible who might have said to God, “Get me out of here!”

We’d love to have your prayers as we finalise preparations. You can download a prayer bookmark here: http://alturl.com/kjtkv

YOUTH FRIENDLY BADGEOne of the 5 big issues we identified in the One in a Million research was the gap in assumptions and expectations between employers and young people. We have been working on the iPad app to try to address this from the young people’s end, but we have also heard about this initiative for employers – the Youth Friendly Badge.

Youth Employment UK, who launched the Badge, explain, “The purpose of this badge is to recognise and celebrate all of the brilliant employers, youth organisations and providers who are already Youth Friendly. We know that 1 in 4 employers in the UK provide work experience, mentoring, talks in schools and even create opportunities for young people in the form of Apprenticeships, Internships, Graduates and Entry Level Roles. We also know that to have a real

impact on youth unemployment we need to create more opportunities for young people, more opportunities to experience the world of work, access support and inspiration and of course more vacancies. The Youth Friendly Badge aims to help employers who are not already taking part in youth friendly activities to do so.”

For more information, watch the video and then sign up at www.yeuk.org.uk

WATCH THIS SPACECurrently we have two large projects being developed that we hope to be able to release in the near future.

The One in a Million App is progressing well in its development with O2 and IMImobile and will soon be rolled out throughout the StreetSpace community of practice to serve unemployed young people.

Also, Richard Passmore has been working intensively with colleagues on his new book “Here Be Dragons: Youth Work and Mission Off the Map” which is an exciting exploration of mission on the edges with young people at risk.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH?Please remember StreetSpace in Western Super Mare and FYT team member John Wheatley who aims to provide 50 free lunches a day during the summer to those young people who would have benefited from free school meals and for whom the long summer holiday can actually adversely affect their nutrition.

Youth Work ClinicAre you a youth worker or concerned about youth work? Are you looking for advice, suggestions or someone to bounce ideas around with? Would you just like to have a conversation with someone who’ll understand what you’re talking about?

Throughout the weekend the FYT team will be around and would love to offer you a cuppa and a chat. Drop-in clinics will be running alongside the sessions below. You can also pop in then to arrange an appointment for another time, or drop us a message on Facebook or Twitter @FYTtweets

Dreams at the Edge Friday, 17.00-18.00Alastair Jones (FYT CEO) explores how we need dreamers at the frontier or youth work.

Here Be Dragons Saturday, 13.00-14.00Richard Passmore (National StreetSpace Coordinator) explores engaging in effective missional youth work at the edge of the map.

One in a Million iPad app Sunday, 13.45-14.45Have a play with an iPad app to support young people in their search for work. Developed by FYT and O2.

Also see the FYT team at The Kitchen throughout the day on saturday

FrOntiEr YOutH trust At tHE KitCHEn WitH CMs

FYT AT GREENBELT 2013

/ News – Summer 20138