St Christopher’s Hall Trust Youth Worker Job Description

Objective The Trustees of St Christopher’s Hall Trust seek a Youth Worker to:

- Give young people the opportunity to connect with Jesus Christ as the ultimate meaning to life - Work in and with local secondary schools - Develop relationships with young people - Work as part of the Telford wide “Engage” project into Secondary schools - Lead appropriate events and projects to support the above.

Contractual The employment is a fulltime permanent role of 37 hours per week with 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays. Flexible working is expected to fit around the work with young people. Flexibility includes timing of holidays, availability at weekends and evenings, and working more than 37 hours some weeks offset by less hours in other weeks. Recruitment Appointment will be made based on passion and calling for this role and the quality of the applicant in accordance with the criteria below. We would like a recruit to begin in September with a view to being up to speed for the GSUS project in early November as a launch pad for the work. Remuneration Salary will be in the range £16-20k depending on experience. A salary-sacrifice pension of up to 6% of salary is offered for which contributions will be matched by the employer. Salary will be reviewed annually on 1st April. Training and Development We encourage and support the training and development of our workers. We would expect to fund training in youth work and spiritual development as mutually agreed each year. Expenses Pre-agreed travel outside normal place of work, communications, IT and materials costs will be re-imbursed by the employer. Place of work The nature of the role necessitates work in multiple places (e.g. schools in Telford). St Christopher’s Hall Trust is based in Admaston House, Admaston, TF5 0BN. For good cooperation and encouragement with other youth workers, it is planned for office space to be located with other schools workers, but the location of this is yet to be decided. Attributes of youth worker

- Passion for Jesus and proclaiming the gospel - Belonging/participating in a local church - Humility in walk with Lord, seeking to grow daily in relationship with Him. - Passion for young people - Ability to relate well with teenagers across background spectrum - Ability to organize events and projects - Ability to lead and coordinate volunteers - Ability to connect well with those in responsibility (eg teachers and school management) - Self-motivated - Ability to work well in a team

Background to Role St Christopher’s Hall Trust and Youth Work St Christopher’s Hall Trust was established through legacies in the 1950s as a non-denominational Christian charity to support mission and pastoral work in the local community. It uses its income primarily to employ 3 workers

(increasing to 4 with this role) and to lease part of Admaston House Community Centre. The Trust put capital sums into the new annex at Admaston House. The Trust, its workers and volunteers represent various churches. The Trustees are participating members in Hope Community Church, All Saints Wellington and House of Prayer; the current workers are participating members in Hope Community Church, All Saints and Springfield Christian Fellowship. Between 2005 and 2016, St Christopher’s ran a youth club on a Friday night which consisted of secondary-school pupils gathered from off the streets. The nature of the club meant that the church youth did not feel welcome, so a separate youth club was established monthly on a Saturday night “for them and their friends”. The Friday night club had times of spiritual vibrancy and awakening with members participating in “Youth Alpha” and “Soul” courses as well as frequent and extensive spiritual discussions in the club itself. Also, a fortnightly more spiritual group was established on a Sunday night. These have leaders and participants from various churches. The Friday night youth club shut in 2016 as the numbers had dwindled as the groups we had matured beyond 18 and we lacked new younger age groups coming in. The more Christian / middle class groups continue. The Trust runs annually a “Fun Week” which consists of a Holiday Club for primary-school children (about 100 attend) and family and youth events in the evenings. The youth side of this has also dwindled over the years. The Trust is also a major participant in work in the local primary school (St Peters) with “Open the Book” and “Prayer Space”. In addition, a new youth café has commenced on a termly basis with the year 7s who left St Peters last year. The capacity of leaders to increase this frequency is limited, but this does provide a springboard for further work. This is not therefore an appointment to a large and successful youth work, but an appointment to primarily launch new things and build new relationships, but with access to some seeds sown. Engage Project John Prockter has led the Catalyst Youth Trust in Bridgnorth for some years. This trust employs x youth workers and has a significant work in local schools, in youth clubs and in teenage Bible study groups. The Engage project is headed initially by John in order to develop a similar network of work in schools in Telford. As there are 15 secondary schools in Telford, it is planned to divide this work up by areas of Telford. St Christopher’s trust is located in North West Telford where Charlton, Hadley Learning Community and Ercall Wood schools reside. The Elim Church in Hadley already has strong links into HLC, so this work is aimed at Charlton and Ercall Wood. Specifics of Role The Youth Worker will therefore be funded by St Christopher’s Hall Trust and be primarily focused on the children of Charlton and Ercall Wood. The role will be conducted in conjunction with the Engage project with a view that the youth worker will not work alone, but with a pooling of resources with other youth workers across the town and under the expertise of John Prockter. Specific aspects of the role include:

- To develop relationships with the local school teachers and management as appropriate to facilitate access and the work.

- To work in close cooperation with other youth workers across the town of Telford. - To report to John Prockter in terms of daily work. - To report to St Christopher’s Hall Trust in terms of longer term strategy. - To develop strong relationships with young people with a view to generally improving their chances in life. - To demonstrate the truth and power of the gospel in daily living and in teaching and encouragement in

the ways of Christ. - To offer facilities and time to young people in ways which work which may include social youth clubs and

Christian courses and Bible studies. - To encourage Christian young people in their witness in the schools - To support the development of an accurate understanding of what it means to follow Jesus among the

young people in our schools (possibly through assemblies, lessons, clubs etc). - To develop a realistic programme of activities in conjunction with the young people.

To build, encourage and manage a network of volunteers to support the work.