Children, young people and families resources

This page is a listing of resources, links and ideas to help with Ministry to Children, young people and families during the crisis. Ian Macdonald, our Youth Advisor, and Yvonne Morris, our Children and Families Advisor, are available for specific advice or questions that you may have at this time.

Can we run groups and meet up with young people?

The Government have now moved to a position where some physical meetups are allowed. Youth, Children and Family Advisers from a number of dioceses have worked together to produce this summary. It is a broad outline of what is permitted, and what needs to be in place.

Please note the Government Guidance on face coverings. For indoor meetings, they are a requirement for leaders and young people over the age of eleven.

And the advice from the National Youth Agency is here

Exploring faith at home

The Diocese of Portsmouth has produced some excellent resources to help families explore faith at home in creative and interactive ways.

• A list of books to help children explore faith at home
• A list of books to help young people explore faith at home
• Guidance for churches on supporting children and young people during Covid-19

Other great resources we’ve come across
(scroll down this page for a complete listing)

• Go on a pilgrimage at home
  The purpose of a pilgrimage is to journey physically and spiritually to learn something more or new about God and about yourself as you journey. Pilgrimage at Home by Tony Cook, can be done in a house or flat using the rooms you have and ignoring any instructions that are not relevant to your home.
• Create a prayer space
  BeSpace have created a range of prayer activities for use at home during the pandemic. Download the worksheets from their website.
• Stories for strange times
  Diddy Disciples have audio stories, colouring sheets and a host of creative ideas to help explore stories for strange times with children.
• Church@Home
  A resource for families with children aged 4-11 years – use on Sunday or any time during the week. All the activities use things you will hopefully have around your home, you’ll just need a copy of he Lion Storyteller Bible. Click here to download resource sheets from the Diocese of Portsmouth.
• Colouring pages – Frog & Gnome have produced a free booklet of beautifully designed Bible verse colouring pages for anxious times.
• The Oxford Diocesan Board of Education (DBE) has produced a range of resources for children and families to use during lockdown

Young people and youth work

• Zoom: Guidance for online youth work
• Zoom: Using Zoom for discussion groups
• Zoom: turn on original sound for worship. Here’s how.
• Zoom: Discussion guide – Encountering God during suffering
• Zoom: Games for Zoom groups
• Scroll down this page for a complete listing of other great resources we’ve come across. 

The Contemplative Toolkit

We will be publishing the Contemplative Toolkit for use with adults and young people later this year. It’s draft form at the moment but a number of groups have been running the first two practices over online platforms during this crisis. The Introduction, and the practices of “Stilling” and “Noticing” are available for you to try and use too. You might want to watch how children at Goring primary school used the toolkit as we developed it.

Bereavement

When someone who a child knows well dies, their world changes in an instant. The temptation is to try to protect children from the effects of grief and facing the stark reality of death. However, the reality is that children need to know about death and to be supported in helping them work out responses and to deal with their own grief. These resources are offered for anyone supporting a child at this time.

• Supporting children through loss and bereavement – an excellent resource produced by the Diocese of Birmingham
• Good grief – the steps to ‘good grief’ from the Fuller Youth Institute
• Trauma and grief – resources and tips to help children cope with trauma and grief.
• Bereavement and trauma resources from the Church of England

Other links