Youth Across Hemel: Interim Annual Report September 2023 to June 2024
I am pleased to present this report as we near the end of the sixth full year that Youth Across Hemel (“YAH”) has operated as a registered charity. As we enter a new year, we continue to make good progress in all our focus areas and have built capacity to grow in influence and impact.
1. Providing Resources
Since forming as a newly formed charity in July 2018, our focus has been on building up capacity, getting policies and procedures in place, securing volunteers and funding and building important networks and relationships.
We have focused our limited resources on the following areas;
Building networks and relationships
We have maintained and established new relationships with head teachers, teachers, church leaders, youth leaders and other youth organisations.
Training
We have been actively seeking volunteers, with a number of Hemel’s young adults having assisted with events and other activities.
We have trained a team of volunteer school workers who deliver lessons as part of the RE curriculum in two local schools. Providing Safeguarding and mental health training to all our staff and volunteers. We were also able to send four of our staff and volunteers on First Aid courses this year. We look to continue to expand this model over the coming year, ensuring that they are appropriately trained and supported for the work they are involved with.
Working with local churches
We have been engaging and working with a number of local church leaders and youth workers and, wherever possible, using their facilities for events and activities. We continued to engage local churches to update them on the work and gain their support through volunteering, prayer and donations.
We also created a video to send to the churches we were not able to visit, updating them on what we have been doing and how we have grown.
Running free events
Youth Across Hemel volunteers who also comprise of people from other churches and organisations, have run four free events over the last year. Below is more information of what we got up to at each event.
THE MIX 19 at Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church – October 2023
Themed Mission Impossible 2, this Mix brought 30 young people together to try their hand at Nerf gun wars, a laser web obstacle course, blindfolded trust trials and other fun challenges to see if they have what it takes to be a spy.
We had an amazing time of worship and a challenging talk from Sarah Powell on what it means to put our faith in God. We also gave each young person an ice cream float drink with a mini sparkler in that were fun and delicious!
Youth Across Hemel: Interim Annual Report September 2023 to June 2024
BONFIRE PARTY – November 2023
A lovely evening under the open sky at Spring Meadow Farm, by a roaring bonfire. We had team games, sparklers, glow sticks, toasted marshmallows, and yummy chocolate milk.
We had a special time of worship a thought from Tirzah Josephs about each of us being God’s handiwork. And a time for prayer and reflection.
The Bonfire Party is always a very magical and fun evening for our young people. Thank you to all our wonderful helpers and volunteers for making it a safe and enjoyable time.
THE MIX 20 at Adeyfield Free Church, March 2024
This Wild Wild West themed Mix brought together more than 30 young people with a ‘last man standing’ inflatable, card games, tin can alley, sombrero toss and more county fair games. The young people enjoyed delicious popcorn and mocktails while listening to a thrilling testimony from Lisa Dussek on her time in America and how she became a follower of Jesus.
We also had a lovely time of worship that was engaging and meaningful for the young people. Thanks to ‘Good News for Everyone’ we were also able to provide each young person that attended with a New Testament and Psalms bible during the event – and were also given the choice to take one of these home.
LETS GO KAYAKING – June 2024
After a few technique tips, some 14 kayakers took to the Grand Union canal with speed and quickly learnt skills. A refreshing afternoon full of paddling and splashing in the warm sunshine
Youth Across Hemel: Interim Annual Report September 2023 to June 2024
2. Consulting and Supporting Local Churches
Engagement
YAH seeks to support local churches in the youth work they are doing, either in their churches or local schools. We aim to visit the most active churches once every two years and we continued to invest in a high quality video which we sent to churches which we were unable to visit.
Building Capacity and Momentum
We continued to build our database of contacts, ensuring that we are GDPR compliant, and have segmented our contacts into different interest groups in order to support relevant contact. We continue to seek and train volunteers to help keep our data up-to-date and compliant.
Collaboration with churches and organisations
We have been liaising with a number of different local churches and para-church organisations, including STEP. We continue to collaborate wherever we can and to encourage local churches to take the lead and provide volunteers and resources wherever possible.
3. Working with Schools
Wherever possible, YAH prefers to collaborate with existing partnerships rather than compete with other organisations or duplicate activity. We work mainly through the following activities;
Assemblies
No assemblies were undertaken in 2023-24.
Providing RE lessons
In the academic year 2023/24 we have been able to provide lessons to Hemel Hempstead School and Kings Langley School on miracles, religious art, ultimate questions and Jesus as the Messiah. These were given high praise by the head of RE from both schools. They believed that the lessons positively affected the student’s grades. While giving feedback that the students enjoyed our lessons and have asked when we would be coming back and delivering more lessons.
We have also had conversations with other schools in Hemel Hempstead this year with the hope of delivering more RE lessons or clubs to, at least, four schools in the next academic year.
Partnership with STEP in St Albans
Our partnership with STEP has given YAH access to large array of high-quality lesson plans which avoids duplication of work. STEP has continued to support us in lending us their resources and demonstrating their lessons to our team. We have successfully adapted and utilised these resources and, in doing so, have saved a significant amount of time and delivered more effectively. We continue to be very grateful for Chris Birch-Evans and his team for their generosity and encouragement.
Creating our own lesson plans
This year STEP helped us build a new capability to be able to create our own lesson plans. A school we work with requested a subject and STEP did not have a lesson on this topic. They were able to give us some ideas and encouragement on how to go about creating our own. We were able to create a lesson on Jesus as the Messiah and have a courtroom-style element to get the students to put themselves in the shoes of people from the time of Jesus. We got very good feedback from both teachers and students.
Youth Across Hemel: Interim Annual Report September 2023 to June 2024
Lunchtime and afterschool clubs
The Summit: Kings Langley School - This is a weekly lunchtime club run by Rev. James McDonald from All Saints Church, Kings Langley, YAH Volunteer Lisa Dussek, and Kings Langley School teacher, Melusi Moyo. This is a safe and fun space for all year groups at Kings Langley School to talk about Jesus and the bible while playing games, eating snacks and making new friends.
Connect: Hemel Hempstead School - This is a weekly lunchtime club run entirely by South Hill Church Childrens and Families worker, Anna Nicks and Youth Worker, Sorrell Harden at the Hemel Hempstead School (HHS).
In addition, YAH continues to liaise with the South Hill Church team, with the Head of HHS and Father Mike Macy from St Johns Church, Boxmoor to discuss other opportunities, on which, we could collaborate.
We have advanced discussions with two further schools in the region with regards to clubs and lessons.
4. Networking
YAH seeks every opportunity to link people together and to encourage collaboration between different groups where appropriate. Some of the networking activities we have done include:
Database and Mailing list
Our database includes school heads and teachers, church leaders, organisation leaders, church youth workers, volunteers, prayer supporters and donors. We do not currently keep any designatory data on Youth on our databases, preferring to drive all communications via Churches, Youth Leaders and School groups. This growing source of data has proved to be invaluable for our networking activity. A bi-annual e-news report is issued to keep our key audiences up-to-date with events and developments
School Heads and Leadership Team
We have been engaging with school leaders from four of the ten target schools in our area.
Attending events
We will continue to attend events run by other church and para-church organisations where relevant to the work of YAH.
Networking Breakfasts / Events
Having previously run Teachers and Church leaders networking breakfasts and a Youth work toolkit for churches, we are planning to run networking events in the future for current and potential fundraisers to increase the funding base for our work.
5. Prayer and Financial Support
We have a WhatsApp group for prayer supporters where we post items for prayer. If you would like to be added to this list please contact info@yahemel.co.uk giving your email / mobile number with permission to use.
If you would like to offer Financial Support to the work of YAH please contact Treasurer@YAHemel.co.uk, or visit our website for further information.
Youth Across Hemel: Interim Annual Report September 2023 to June 2024
6. Team updates
We were very pleased to have several volunteers join our team to help at events - Pritam and Tirzah Josephs, Tom and Charis Beadle from Hemel Vineyard, Jemma and Hannah Young from Hemel Hempstead Community Church (HHCH), Katie Shouler, Tom and Sarah Powell from Christchurch and Primrose Lwanga from Sunrise.
Our schools team includes James McDonald from All Saints, Andrew Brazier from HH Methodist Church, David Young & Richard Winski from HHCH, Andy Barton from Belmont Road Baptist and Anna Nicks from South Hill Church.
We also have new staff and volunteers that have joined our admin team too, including Karen Keane and Tirzah Josephs from Hemel Vineyard. We look forward to Danielle Hobbs returning from maternity leave in the Autumn.
7. The Coming Year
On reflection, it was a year of great progress for Youth Across Hemel, and we have set some ambitious targets for 2024/5 at our Strategy & planning event in July. Key for us over the next year will be:
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1) to continue expand and train our network of volunteers, to enable us to take on new opportunities
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2) to increase regular giving, from individuals as well as other local organisations; and
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3) to help grow and deepen relationships between the ten target schools in our area and their local churches.
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4) to appoint a schools’ liaison officer to help extend RE provision in local schools
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5) To grow our base of prayer support.
I am grateful to the team for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication and my desire for this next year is that we steward our opportunities well. in these times, when only 5% of youth attend
church, we have been given a privileged opportunity to give an authentic Christian viewpoint in their schools. We need to be open to every God given opportunity to explain the hope that we have been given. We stand for Youth across Hemel Hempstead, will you stand with us?
Damon Harding Chairperson Youth Across Hemel
Youth Across Hemel Financial Statement for year ending 31st August 2024
Balance b/fwd as at 1st September 2023
£8,783.51
| Income Regular Offering Additional gifts Total Income Payments Events Publicity Training ThirtyOneEight Insurance / IT Staff costs Total payments |
£2,406.18 £2,252.38 |
|---|---|
| £4,658.56 £1,618.72 £200.00 £360.00 £202.32 £898.68 £3,309.45 |
|
| £6,589.17 |
Balance to c/fwd as at 31st August 2024 £6,852.90 Statement of Assets & Liabilities Bank Current A/C £6,852.90
Treasurers Statement
I have prepared the financial statement for the year ending 31st August 2024 for the accounting records of Youth Across Hemel.
Matthew Masters Treasurer 16 September 2024