09 July 2008
Church to make major investment in youth engagement
The Methodist Conference has agreed to invest more than £4
million in a major initiative to develop and enhance the
participation of young people in the life of the Church.
The Church's Youth Participation Strategy is a five-year
initiative involving a specialist team of youth workers and young
people employed to address how the Church engages with youth
culture on local and national levels. Each Methodist district will
receive a grant for the part-time employment of a young person aged
16-23. For most of their time these Youth Enablers will work within
their district, but a proportion of their time will be used for
national initiatives. Each year every district will take on a new
'Mission Possible' project proposed by young people and designed to
put the Gospel into action in local communities.
Mike Seaton, Under 19's Team Leader for the Church, says; 'Young
people need to be empowered to live as Christians, to witness to
their peers and to participate as equals in the Church.
Participation is all about involvement - it can be anything from
providing opinions to setting agendas and decision making. In
adopting this report, the Church is making a huge investment for
future engagement with young people and youth culture. This
decision demonstrates that the Church is serious about bringing
youth participation into the heart of the life of the
Church.'
District Youth Enablers will be supported by Connexional
Participation Workers and seven full-time regional Participation
Workers (five in England and one each in Scotland and Wales).
Conference received the report and endorsed its recommendations.
The pilot project will begin in September with an ongoing programme
of monitoring and evaluation with a full report in 2011.