Church Urban Fund Podcast

  • December 2010: Open Hands, Coventry

    Image of Adam

    With Adam*, part-time Housing Officer and former resident

    Open Hands provides residential accommodation, counseling and support for men with chronic drink problems. Adam, who is now the project’s part-time Housing Officer, spent two years as a resident as he battled addiction to alcohol.


  • November 2010: Community Healthcare Innovations, South Woodford

    With Stephanie O’Leary, Project Director.
     
    Community Healthcare Innovations started three years ago as a way of providing quality, nurse-lead healthcare and support in a highly deprived area of Redbridge. Stephanie, a qualified nurse, felt called to leave her full-time work in the NHS to commit herself to working with marginalised people who didn't have full access to healthcare.


  • September 2010: St Leonard’s church, Bootle

    Debbie King, Community Worker at St Leonard's Bootle

    With Debbie King, Community Development Worker.

    St Leonard’s church plays an active part in the community life of the Peel Road area of Bootle. The church, and its linked church hall, were recently modernised to make them more suitable for wider use by the community. Along with regular weekly activities such as mother and toddler groups, Brownies and Guides, IT training and a community lunch, the church does outreach work with local children and young people, giving them a space to hang out away from the streets.


  • August 2010: Church Urban Fund at Greenbelt Festival

    Tim Bissett outside Church House

    Tim Bissett - Church Urban Fund's CEO - talks about CUF's partnership with Greenbelt and the sessions that will be happening in our sponsored venue.

    This year is the fifth year that Church Urban Fund has partnered Greenbelt Festival, the largest Christian arts festival in Europe. Greenbelt offers a unique blend of faith, justice and arts, a fertile ground where ideas about community, living the Gospel and being active in creating change can take shape. 

    This year, Church Urban Fund is sponsoring the Kitchen, a venue dedicated to talks and workshops on community and social action. In this month's podcast, Tim explains why this is a good fit with CUF's aims, and talks about two special sessions that CUF is running during the Festival.


  • July 2010: the Aylesbury estate, Walworth, London

    With Donna Grant, Space and Activities Coordinator at Inspire at St Peter's, Walworth.

    Donna Grant has lived on the Aylesbury estate for almost forty years, moving in as a child shortly after the building was completed in 1971. 

    The Aylesbury - one of the largest housing developments in Europe - has one of the worst reputations for crime, deprivation and poor living standards, partly influenced by the physical decay of the buildings themselves. We wanted to find out what life was really like behind the glaring headlines and stories.


  • June 2010: Slough Refugee Support

    With Rose Njoroge, Drop-in Coordinator and Emmanuel Munyambuga, Refugee Integration Project Coordinator.

    Slough has one of the highest numbers of asylum seekers and refugees in Britain.  Slough Refugee Support (SRS) started very informally at the local Methodist church; refugees attending the church needed help with basics such as clothing, food and household items, and some also needed legal representation. As demand increased, the service moved to larger offices.

    Last year, SRS helped over 1200 people from around forty counties of origin, including Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Iraq.


  • May 2010: Church Urban Fund National Conference

    With Rev Peter Rouch and Liz Etherton, recorded during the Church Urban Fund National Conference held in Birmingham on 27 April.

    The Church Urban Fund third annual National Conference saw over 250 community activists, practitioners and faith representatives meeting to share ideas and learn new skills. Peter and Liz lead two of the day’s nine workshops, Peter discussing how local projects can and should work alongside statutory agencies, and Liz giving advice about building strong and effective teams.


  • March 2010: Broadfield Children's Project, Crawley

    With Jeremy Brown, Project Manager.

    Broadfield Children's Project began as a series of primary school assemblies, lead by Jeremy Brown.

    Jeremy, a former primary school teacher and children's worker in Crawley, had been asked by Christ the Lord Church in Broadfield to look at ways that the church could reach out to children and families in the area; through the school assemblies, Jeremy established that there was a real need for children's work in the area, especially after school.


  • February 2010: The Source Cafe, Aldershot

    With Natalie Cooper, The Source Cafe coordinator.

    The Source started in 2000 as the vision of Jo Emmett, who worked with homeless and disaffected young people in Aldershot.

    Working with local churches and statutory and voluntary organizations, The Source became established as a youth café, offering a safe space free from drugs and alcohol, for young people to meet and feel part of. The Source moved into its new, fully-equipped, premises in 2007 with support from the local borough council, and worked with more tha 650 young people over the last year.

  • January 2010: Strood Community Project, Kent

    With Paul Robinson, Project Manager.

    Strood Community Project started in 2006 as an initiative of the Diocese of Rochester, helping the town centre churches to become more community-focused.

    The parishes of St Nicholas and St Francis of Assisi began working in partnership with the aim of helping anyone in the community who needed any form of help. The area is in the lowest 8% in the country for education and skills, with a significant need for training to help long-term unemployed people back into work. When a survey highlighted the need for somewhere in Strood for people to receive training and advice, the churches worked together to develop a training programme.

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