Project
The church project from September 2012 to August 2013 is to help the Mentoring Scheme of Durham Youth for Christ.
Other charities supported by Elvet are mentioned below.
Durham Youth for Christ - Mentoring Scheme
For this year’s project Elvet Methodist Church will be working with Durham Youth for Christ on their Mentoring Scheme. Based in Gilesgate; the scheme works with young people at risk of engaging in crime.
It offers ‘at risk’ young people the opportunity to meet with a supportive volunteer mentor each week. Mentors listen to their concerns and offer them support.
For these young people, who often live complex and chaotic lives, the presence of a consistent, positive adult can have a great effect and can enable young people to believe in themselves and their potential to achieve.
The mentoring scheme is designed to raise the aspirations of young people, challenge their behaviour and raise their self-esteem.
Volunteers act as positive role models and provide young people with relevant alternatives to offending behaviour. They are looking to increase their funding to enable them to work with more young people. They would also like to increase partnerships with local churches.
The mentoring scheme addresses four of the biggest factors leading to offending behaviour in young people:
Underachievement in education
Low self-esteem
Lack of a significant role model
Non-constructive use of time
Durham Youth for Christ work closely with related organisations by putting young people in touch with support agencies.
- We can support this project in two ways
- Financially – we can raise funds to cover the costs of recruitment and training of more mentors (who are volunteers)
- By volunteering as a mentor.
Previous Projects
We support a different project each year. We alternate between local projects, and overseas projects.
The church project from September 2011 to August 2012 was to help New Hope In Cambodia in Cambodia with Global Care
From September 2010 to August 2011 we helped asylum seekers in the Tees Valley area through Justice First.
From September 2009 to August 2010 we supported The Kwagala Trust. The previous year we supported Beverley School (a Specialist school for children and young people with autism) and the year before street children in Cambodia, supporting work done by Global Care.
We also support charities with a retiring collection after our communion services.