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Family Hubs and Your Community

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News from Churchworks

As East Sussex is one of the 75 areas across England where the Government are launching family hubs, we would like to invite you to this online meeting in Sept.

Its a personal invitation to the Gather Movement and Churchworks Commission online Family Hubs webinar with Andrea King, Director of the National Centre for Family Hubs, on Thursday 22 September 10-11am.

The government-funded roll-out of Family Hubs will provide a ‘one-stop shop’ of important family support services across social care, education, mental health and physical health needs in each Local Authority, targeting especially the first 1,001 critical days of a child’s life and school readiness. The funding criteria specifically states that Family Hubs should involve local voluntary and faith groups. This provides us with a unique opportunity to engage.

This webinar is your opportunity to see how churches in your area can get involved to support families in your communities during these challenging times.

You will leave with a clear way forward about how to collaborate with other churches, how to start a conversation about Family Hubs with your Local Council’s Children’s Services Director, and the possibilities to co-design services in the new Family Hubs together with public services and the NHS.

You may also like to pass this invitation on to another church leader who might want to register for this event.  To register, simply reply to markcowling@gathermovement.org or go to Zoom and we will send you the zoom link for the webinar meeting.

We do hope you will be able to join us for this significant opportunity to see a united church play its part in serving our communities.

Eastbourne Community Land Trust Seeks Supporters

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ECLT – Press Release for Eastbourne Churches

Eastbourne Community Land Trust (ECLT) reveals an excting new plan for affordable housing in Eastbourne. You could be a part of our first shared ownership scheme to build five Modular Construcion houses in Langney.

Already ECLT has raised three quarters of the £1 million+ with a combinaion of grants, donations and a mortgage offer. The Council have supplied the site for our five very low energy-cost houses, using airtight construction and super insulation.

Now we need your help to raise the rest of the money to complete the build in 2023. Any resident of Eastbourne could be eligible for one of these fantastic affordable new homes.

Other informa9on

Eastbourne Community Land Trust (ECLT), with the help of Eastbourne Borough Council, has exchanged contracts for the purchase of a redundant garage site in Biddenden Close, Langney, where we will build five affordable houses for joint ownership with local families.

The total cost of the project will be in excess of £1,000,000. We have received donations, grants and a mortgage offer, which covers three-quarters of the expected cost. Our task this summer and Autumn is to raise the rest of the money, so we can build three 3-bed and two 2-bed houses in early 2023.

The freehold of the houses will be held in perpetuity by ECLT, so when a family want to move on, their share of the property is bought back by ECLT and the house offered to another ECLT member on a new shared ownership contract. This means the houses will always be offered to ECLT members at affordable prices, relevant at the time contracts are agreed.

ECLT was established in 2018 by two Christians who share a passion for tackling the affordable housing crisis. We are a Community Benefit Society, recognised by HMRC as a non profit-making exempt charity, and will hold these houses in trust for people resident within, or with strong ties to Eastbourne; i.e key workers, other family members in the town etc. All our trustees have been working as unpaid volunteers for nearly four years to get where we are now.

We need your help to raise the rest of the money needed and to build the houses One of them could be for you or one of your family. Society Membership costs £1 and entitles you to be considered for a house.

The houses are modular construction, designed and built in Newhaven by Boutique Modern, who have just finished 12 flats in Langney Road for the Council. The houses are incredibly energy efficient, with a heat recovery system and heavily insulated. Even with the latest round of energy price rises this autumn, we expect that the average total fuel bill will only be one third of a conventional house. Construction times are very fast, with the house modules arriving on lorries and being craned into position, once the groundworks are completed

Eastbourne Community Land Trust is a non profit -making charity, creating affordable houses for people in Eastbourne; the freeholds being held by ECLT in perpetuity for the benefit of the community.

 

Sussex Charity Giving Away £7500 Video Conferencing Suites to Charities

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Sussex based charity. Computers for Charities has £1.5 million of quality Video Conferencing equipment, simply to give away to aid Schools & Charities.

CfC is assisting a well know IT company with the distribution of complete video conferencing suites. (Valued at £7500 or 8946 euros across the UK, Eire & Northern Ireland,  at no cost.

Chairman. Simon Rooksby says. We are seeking applications from interested organisations able to benefit from this most generous gesture. Please get in touch!

For more information or to apply. Please Call Simon 01323 848588 or email admin@computersforcharities.org

Inspiring Angels – An Advent Initiative for Eastbourne Churches

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Dear Friends,

I have not met all of you, so for the sake of clarity: my name is Fr. Danny Pegg and I am a Church of England minister licensed to two parishes: Hampden Park and Willingdon.

I am writing to you with an opportunity of partnership in the gospel, for Advent 2022. I have already spoken to my colleagues within the Church of England and we have 10+ parishes interested in being involved.

In December 2021, Inspiring Angels Ipswich launched its ‘angel festival’ across all of Ipswich, connecting over a hundred churches alongside many business and civic partners. Using angel artwork, scripture, and themed events,  ecumenical colleagues connected with over 15,000 people over December, providing untold opportunities for engagement on the real message of Christmas across Ipswich inside and outside of churches, inside and outside of acts of worship. The folk in Ipswich will be doing this again, and are even pushing for this to be taken up as an National Church initiative.

We could do the same in our town in 2022.

To be involved, all any church or partner has to do is have something that connects with angels for some or all of the period of Advent, be this an art installation, an angel carol service, a prayer trail, a giant pair of selfie wings, a Bible study series on the angels in the nativity stories, or anything else! Big or small, it doesn’t matter! You would have control over your contribution and develop this in your way, that is authentic to your church community. This would form part of the trail and in return you would have all of your Advent and Christmas events / services advertised centrally, as well as hopefully, some increased traffic into your worship spaces, groups, club, services and mission and evangelism work. There would also hopefully emerge a few ‘flagship’ events too that would enable people across our deanery to come together. In Ipswich, this was a civic carol service which the Mayor attended which drew a very large crowd indeed.

Sometimes, the thought of joining in with yet ‘another thing’ can feel a bit overwhelming or damaging to our core initiatives at our busy times, but in this case, I would suggest that you quite easily tie in something you would have done anyway. It is also an opportunity to see if this idea excites any imaginations in our congregations, and it could be that our congregations design and lead the majority of these! In short, I see this as a really positive example of something we can do together with relatively low effort that results in something bigger than the sum of its parts. We can show our town that we are all active, and bothered about Christmas, and provide something accessible to those all too easily consumed by ‘commercial Christmas.’ We can announce with the angels that Jesus is coming!

You can find more information about the Inspiring Angels Ipswich 2021 effort on their website: https://www.inspiringangels.org.uk/

I hope you would like to partner in some way with us on this one – we really think this could have a big impact!

God bless you and your congregations,

Fr. Danny

The Revd. Danny Pegg
Associate Vicar for Mission and Discipleship
The Parish of Hampden Park & The Hydneye and The Parish of Willingdon
01323 659993

Breaking Chains & Living in Freedom Workshop

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We have an eternity in heaven. But, first we have to live on this Earth, so we need to make that matter! He has plans for every one! He has promised you, peace and love and joy and hope and freedom, whilst you are on this earth before you get to heaven.

Are you living that way? If not, why not? Perhaps you have chains that need breaking, like behavioural, physical, emotional, thoughts & beliefs, feelings & toxic emotions. Have you got chains that are binding you and stopping you from living that freedom? Do you want to break those chains and are your ready?

Local author and speaker Lauren Roskilly will help you explore these questions at a special workshop taking place at Victoria Baptist on the 17th of September. You can find out more via the video here and here 

GET YOUR TICKET HERE NOW: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaki… 

Victoria Baptist Host Interactive Prayer Labyrinth in September

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Labyrinth, designed for every age and every stage.
Take a symbolic journey, create space to unwind in a chaotic world. Rest and reflect on relationships with ourselves, one another, God and our planet. You are invited to walk the Labyrinth at your own pace, guided by meditations, instructions and music relating to each part of the labyrinth.
This September, come and take your own personal journey and experience … the Labyrinth.

6th September: – 11.00am – 3.00pm*
7th – 10th September: – 11.00am – 3.00pm* and 7.00pm – 8.30pm*
*(last entry – please allow about one hour for the experience)

For more details, visit: https://www.victoriabaptist.org.uk/church-life/events/

Victoria Baptist Host Labyrinth Prayer in Early September

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Labyrinth, designed for every age and every stage.
Take a symbolic journey, create space to unwind in a chaotic world. Rest and reflect on relationships with ourselves, one another, God and our planet. You are invited to walk the Labyrinth at your own pace, guided by meditations, instructions and music relating to each part of the labyrinth.
This September, come and take your own personal journey and experience … the Labyrinth.

6th September: – 11.00am – 3.00pm*
7th – 10th September: – 11.00am – 3.00pm* and 7.00pm – 8.30pm*
*(last entry – please allow about one hour for the experience)

For more details, visit: https://www.victoriabaptist.org.uk/church-life/events/

Paid Job Opportunity on Saturdays – Drop-in Supervisor – The Way

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Kingdom Way Trust

Paid Job Opportunity on Saturdays – Drop-in Supervisor – The Way

Having opened The Way as a Weekend drop-in centre, we are looking for an additional paid supervisor to coverSaturday shifts (currently 2 per month)

The Supervisor is responsible for the oversight of the volunteer team, the welfare of the guests and the general safe running of the centre. This role requires enthusiasm, empathy and an ability to organise and respond calmly to issues that may arise. The aim is to provide a warm, welcoming and safe place for those of the street community and others who are isolated or lonely, particularly over the weekend.

Experience working with this sector of the community is desirable and supervisory experience would be valuable. Training for the role will be given.

If you or someone you know would be interested in this paid Saturday position (10-4pm) please contact

Graham Horsnell Email: graham@kingdomwaytrust.org Phone: 07484 152210