Youth for Christ breakfast club, Hull
In 1999 Youth for Christ started a breakfast club with the help of a local Baptist church, in the inner city Boulevard area of west Hull.
Once a thriving and affluent area, the Boulevard is now one of the most deprived areas in England, with high levels of unemployment, drug and alcohol dependency and crime. Starting small with around seven children, the breakfast club’s reputation grew as a safe and friendly place for children to go before school.
Anna, who works for YFC, explains why the club was needed. “We wanted to see more of the children everyday, to build up relationships, and to provide a place for the parents to come as well. This means that we’re able to get to know the children in a family context. We wanted the church to be open to the community from Monday to Friday; we wanted to give kids a healthy start to the day, and we know that the children’s concentration is affected by whether or not they have a good healthy breakfast.”
Eating well is an important part of learning well, but for many kids growing up in low -income families, eating three regular meals is often a struggle. As well as giving children a nutritious start to the day, the breakfast club also gives them a space where they can have time with their friends and make new friendships with other children from the area.
“The fact that people want to come is a measure of success,” says Emma Newby, a YFC Family Support Worker. “All our work is optional, but people who want support come along to mums’ activities. We now have parents coming to the breakfast club - parents come along with their friends - because they want a place to come and chat, and they choose to come to us because it’s a really welcoming place and people can have a conversation in a real family environment.”
Mel brings her son to the breakfast club in the mornings before school; both of them enjoy the sociable atmosphere. “I love coming, it’s fun; I like the staff and my son really enjoys doing the reading. I chat with the other mums. For the people nearby there is nothing else like this.”
YFC have discovered that working with families has a lasting, positive effect on children’s confidence and aspirations, and living in the community alongside the people they work with has helped them build understanding and trust. Staff and volunteers offer parenting advice, work with children who have been excluded from school, and provide advocacy in situations where families are involved with social services. “With so many of the people we work with, it’s about being someone who holds out life, hope and a future to them,” Emma says. “We give them new ideas and encourage and support them. We’re able to say to the kids that they’re better than what they think they are, planting ideas of how they can be different; giving them the chance to choose.
“With the families, it is about mums feeling they can talk to me about their real problems, having the confidence to do this, to invite me into the parts of their lives where they have to admit what’s going on in order to get the help they need.”
Watch a short film about Hull YFC's work: