Wyde Detached Team has Been Out and About

Over the last term the Wyde Detached team has once again been hitting the Streets. Helen (All Saints Church Youthworker), Paul (Youth for Christ Youthworker) and Matt (Union Baptist Church Youthworker) have been in the town centre on Tuesday afternoons.

Its been great to meet different young people hanging around at the new skate park, or just around the Town Centre. Over the past couple of weeks we have been handing out sweets and Happy Christmas wishes. Its been great to see the reaction of the young people and has enabled us to get to meet a lot more.



We are hoping that in the New Year we will be able to get to know some of the young people who we are starting to see regularly and even try and do some kind of project work with them.

If you see us around do come and say "hello!"

Wyde's hits the streets!

For the first time last night the burgundy and cream colours of Wyde could be seen walking the streets as Stella and I went Open-Wyde for the first time. We were scouting in the area of Naphill and Kingshill (Stella's patch) looking for young people, who we had heard reports of, hanging around in these areas. It was really great to be back on the streets again meeting with young people in their own space. We made contact with a few sporadic young people in Naphill and with a large group up in Kingshill.

Detached youth work is such a privilege...to walk up to a group of young people, introduce yourself and then to be invited into their world, and to engage them in conversation, it is so cool. Yeah, it does happen to some extent in churches, but it is when you are 'invading' their space rather than them 'coming into' yours that there is a greater feeling of privilege.

We will seek to try and meet up with these guys again, and their friends, so if you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday evening, or if we missed you hanging around last night, come join us in Naphill and Kingshill. Or if you just see the burgundy colours out and about, come and say "hi," we're not that scary, honest!!

Detached Work

Objectives of doing Detached Youth Work

Our Objectives for doing Detached Youth Work are to:

• show young people Christian love and welcome
• go out into the community and meet young people where they are
• build relationships with young people
• listen and journey with the young people
• empower young people to use their voice in their communities
• do activities that build up self-esteem and help young people identify their gifts and strengths, and empowering them to use them e.g. video, music, art, craft
• build and develop key skills e.g. leadership amongst the young people
• get the local churches and para-church organisations working co-operatively
• offer a place and space for them to meet and grow in relationship with God

The Vision for doing Detached Youth Work

Wyde’s vision for doing Detached Youth Work is to work with all young people. We want to take the love of Jesus out to the marginalised and the exclude. We want to go out, to meet them in their space, go to the places that they hang out, places where they meet with friends, and the places where they maybe accused of making trouble.

Our initial vision is to go out on to the streets and into the parks and others areas where young people are, set up a detached youth work team and work with young people there. Ultimately our vision is to have a bus that can be taken out to these places and provide a safe place for them to come and to share. As with all youth ministry our emphasis will be on building relationships and getting alongside the young people, helping them to realise that they are loved and accepted for who they are.

We are seeking to empower young people, to give them a voice in the community, helping them to feel like they are a significant part of it. We will work in partnership with them to develop their potential, grow, and develop projects with them.