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LIVING ON THE EDGE Winner of the 2000 Community Project awards sponsored by
David Lawrence Editor of Reform Magazine visits the first of the winners of this year's awards.
‘If you’re not
living on the edge, then you’re taking up too much room.’
It’s one of Kelly’s favourite phrases, though she is never sure of the origin. Wherever it comes from it fits well. In a world where our main preoccupation seems to be to place ourselves at the centre and surround ourselves with as many possessions and as much security as possible, Kelly is part of a team of young people who have literally and metaphorically staked their claim to territory on ‘The Edge’.
The edge in question is not the Holme estate in Bradford where they live and work, for all its problems. It is certainly not the young people among whom they work and for whom they have such a clear affection. Rather, it is about the edge that too many of those young people fall over into drink, solvent abuse, drugs and crime.
It is on the Holme estate,
in one of two flats over a small shopping precinct that Kelly and three
other young people are spending the best part of a year immersed in the
culture and lives of local young people: supporting them at school,
befriending them on the streets and exploring ways in which they can
provide new opportunities and challenges.
It all began some eight
years ago in the mind of Alan Evans, 22 years the URC minister on the
Holme estate. Alan saw that there was a desperate need for work among the
young people of the estate but he also believed that the only way the
Church could get in touch with them was to have young people like
themselves living in their midst. The people of the estate were all too
used to professionals of various kinds ‘flying in’ to do their work
and then leaving at the end of the day. He approached the local authority
for use of two flats but was turned down flat and that seemed to be that.
Then in 1998 a group including the local authority and local churches met to consider the problems of young people on the estate. The housing manager was rather critical of the lack of initiative shown by the churches and Alan remembers pointing out with some irritation that it was the local authority which had been the cork in the bottle by refusing the use of two flats. “You can have ‘em.” came the reply. Alan took the idea to his Church meeting which felt it was the best idea they had heard in a long time and pledged to underwrite it in the first year by up to £5,000 – small details like where the money would come from were left to be sorted out later.
Local donations amounting to £1,000 were soon forthcoming and an advert was placed. Two young men volunteered and came to live in one of the flats above the cheerless little shopping precinct, initially supporting themselves by applying for the dole. They were followed by two young women. The flats were furnished and equipped by the members of the Church.
It was not long before Alan – not unused to raising money for the 90-member church’s many outreach activities – had begun to meet with some success. The City Challenge initiative promised £5,800 for the first year and UK Action – a part of Tear Fund – another £10,000. Together with smaller donations, including £1,000 from a lady in America who had heard Alan talk about the idea, a total of just over £17,000 was raised.
It was decided that the
team would be paid at the minimum-wage for 14 hours a week – a sum
similar to the dole money they had been receiving. If they wish to do more
than that then they volunteer under the auspices of The Creed, the youth
church associated with Holme URC. Housing benefit paid the rent on the two
flats and the Church met the cost of gas and electricity. The young people
had just over £50 a week in their pockets plus regular invitations to
meals with Alan and members of the congregation.
With the scheme now in its second year, Reform visited The Edge as a second team are beginning their work. Erin, Ben, Paul and Kelly are no middle-class kids trying to ‘do good’ nor are the kind of problems that Holme faces unknown to them. They are refreshingly free of any taint of condescension and their enthusiasm for the work and for the young people among whom they work is infectious.
The word ‘work’ is far from inappropriate. Their 12 months will not be an easy option. Every day starts with prayer: on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 9 o’clock in the Church, on Tuesday at 7 o’clock with Alan Evans and on Friday at 7 o’clock with youth leaders from around Bradford.
Some of their week runs to
a set timetable including items like taking RE lessons at the local
comprehensive school under the supervision of a teacher who is himself a
Muslim. Despite their enthusiasm they know that they must act with care
and consideration. In classes where at least half of the participants are
likely to be non-Christians, they need to walk a fine line between
presenting their own faith with integrity and respecting the faith of
others. On other days team members act as support workers in the
school’s newly-developed Learning Support Unit, where they are joined by
Jenny, another member of last year’s team whose contribution did not end
when the new team arrived. The unit exists to provide a path back to
education for those who have dropped out of school because of one problem
or another, providing them with help in coming to terms with basic skills.
Each young person within the unit is given a learning mentor and members
of the Edge team assist by befriending and acting as a sounding board –
providing a friendly face both in-and-out of school. So successful has the
scheme been that Learning Support Unit teachers approached the main school
for suggestions of pupils who might be struggling and could benefit from
the opportunity to meet once a week to share their concerns with a member
of the team. Some use the time to get some help with reading, others to go
over homework or to talk through issues in their family or personal life.
For many of the children a major difficulty is simply in establishing
relationships – the presence of the team members within the school
during lunch hours can make the whole experience a great deal less
threatening.
In all of this there is
often very little chance to speak of their faith in a conventional way.
They are there for the children and not the other way around. If the
question is to be raised, it is more often going to be because of the way
they act than because of what they say.
Outside of school the programme is varied and the freedom to work in their own way is less restricted. On Monday nights they run an indoor football session for 11 year-olds and upwards – 17 had turned up on the previous Monday. On Tuesday they run a youth Alpha course – on the Tuesday before we met they spent most of the day finishing off the decoration on their new shop. At five o’clock two of them had begun the cooking for the evening meeting and two others had taken the session which started at six. At 9 o’clock on a Tuesday evening after being on the go for 14 hours they can often be found taking relaxation together at the local pub quiz.
Many of the young people
they work with at school live on the estate with them and after school
finishes at 2.30, part of their role is simply to be around the estate. In
the early evenings they make it their task to talk to the many groups of
younger people in the 13-14 age group. Older teenagers tend to come out
later in the evening and so work at 9 o’clock tends to be very
different. Clive, who was one of last year’s team members and who is
taking over some of the management of the project has been able to
introduce the new arrivals to many of the groups they will meet on the
street. It makes things easier than but all still confess to nervousness.
They have never been threatened – though on occasion they are told to go
away in less than polite terms.
Soon the shop above which
they live will be open as their drop-in centre, a place for those who want
to complete their homework in peace and a centre for advice tailored to
their age group. The shop will be managed by Ruth, another survivor of
last year’s team who is in no hurry to leave the scene. Reaction of
young people on the street to the prospect of having somewhere on the
estate to go has been enthusiastic.
With so many activities on
the go I wondered who was setting the agenda. The answer from the team
quite clear – ‘We are’. Recognizing the necessity to reach young
people through young people, the Church has not made the mistake of
recruiting talented volunteers and then restricting them to a programme
dictated by the older
generation.
Much of the team’s work
is focussed on the nearby comprehensive, Tong School, so to put things in
context we went to meet the its Head Teacher, David Platt. After the
overflowing youthful enthusiasm of the team, I had expected to meet with a
much more guarded judgment from someone in charge of a large school in
such a multicultural area. Nothing could be further from the truth.
‘It’s been incredibly successful for us and I know a lot of children
have benefited from it – it has enriched the school.’
From the point of view of
the school, he felt, the team had provided helpers with whom the young
people could identify and who were not too closely identified with
authority. ‘Many families don’t have a very positive view of education
because for many of them they feel they failed. They don’t feel
comfortable talking to teachers; they find it much easier talking to
people not directly associated with the school.’
Was he concerned at
inviting young Christians into such a multicultural situation? ‘No,
because we are multicultural and therefore multi-faith. I told the
team early on that if they pushed their faith forward in a very overt way,
that would not work with children. If people see you doing good work, then
they will come to you and ask “what makes you tick” and then you can
say “well, I’m a Christian.”’
The proof of the pudding is
that three young people from last year’s team are still associated with
the school – one of them now works there. More importantly, in a school
which has recently grown from 1300 to 1700 in a reorganisation, with all
the attendant practical problems, this year’s team were still made more
than welcome. Now other schools, seeing the success, are beginning to ask
for similar help.
When the judges for this
year’s awards met, they were very conscious that to call young people to
a project like the Edge is inherently risky unless they receive the right
back-up and support. It was good to discover that the church in Holme were
very conscious of their responsibility. Each member of the team has a
personal mentor to whom they can take any problems and with whom they meet
regularly. The team as a whole meets Alan Evans once a week for prayer,
breakfast and a Bible Study, with the opportunity to spend as much time as
they need talking over their work. The facilities of the Holme Christian
Care Centre, attached to the church, with its advice sessions and training
programmes are open to the team members and they are welcome to acquire
new skills over their time at Holme. Less formal support from the
congregation comes in the form of committed prayer for the project which
they all count as vital and appreciate even more than the offers of
dinner. One couple in the congregation have declared open house to the
team after Church on Sunday, others are just as generous on a less regular
basis. Looking at them they certainly seem to be surviving well, though I
did agree, under pressure, to include the phrase ‘more dinners’
inconspicuously.
Are they making a
difference? They think it is too early to tell. There is little doubt that
the presence of the team has provided precious support for many
individuals. One or two have gravitated towards the church, far more now
say that it is ‘their church’ even though they don’t attend. Some
local people outside the church say they detect a difference in the
atmosphere.
You sense that the balancing act between the passionate twin desires to reach young people for Christ and to meet their pressing everyday needs is not always easy. But one thing on which they are very clear is their sense of calling and the rightness of their work. Clive sums up the feeling: ‘Not long ago in church we sang For our inheritance, give us the lost. It seemed that all I could hear was God saying “they’re yours”’.
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