Resources for children & young people
This page is a listing of resources, links and ideas to help with Ministry to Children, Young People and Families at this time. 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 National Youth Agency have moved us to “Red” on their Rediness Framework. This, with a few VERY specific exceptions move us to offering only online provision.
You are advised to work with the guidance issued which you will find here
Relationship is key
The feedback from families and young people has been how much they appreciated contact. Visits, phone calls, and from one church, handwritten postcards, all helped to connect, support, listen, and to maintain a two way relationship. If there are families or young people you have lost connection with, it’s not too late to be in touch; to ask how it is going, how the church can support them, and what you can be praying for. Check out our ‘six things’ resource sheets on our dedicated Disciples Together page.
Mental Health and Well-being
- Headstrong: Resources for young people
- Young Minds: Resources for young people
Youth Ministry
- 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
- Socially Distanced Games
The Contemplative Toolkit
We will be publishing the Contemplative Toolkit for use with adults and young people early next 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.
The Contemplative Toolkit for Families is also being developed and here is the Noticing Exercise suitable for use with children in Foundation Stage as well as Key Stages 1 and 2. We would also encourage the breadth of generations in your family or household to join in.
Children’s Ministry
- GodVenture – prayer and activity magazines
- Be Space
- Diddy Disciples
- Bible Chat Mat – Diocese of Bath and Wells
- Scripture union
- ROOTS on the web
- Going for Growth – links to resources
Family and Intergenerational resources
Intergeneration; What it is and why it matters
Messy Church at home
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.