Archive content
This is a text-only version of an article first published on Friday, 23 July 2021. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
St James, Downley, High Wycombe
Tier 1 Award
The award of a Tier 1 Development Fund grant (£2,500) will allow St James, Downley , to set up Growing Hope High Wycombe, working with other local churches to provide a local clinic for families of children with additional needs.
Growing Hope is a national charity that provides free therapy for children and young people with additional needs in partnership with local churches.
By joining the Growing Hope family, St James will be following God's vision of living in his love in their community, worship and prayer, showing God's love through practical support to those with additional needs in the community and building relationships and sharing faith with those families. St James are currently seeking Charity Commission status for Growing Hope High Wycombe and will draw its trustees from churches across Wycombe and employ a professional therapist, whose specialism will depend on the needs of the community.
The free clinics will be based at St James, which is an accessible site, close to a special needs school and three local primary schools, and referrals will be made by schools, churches and individuals.
The therapist will work with each family for six weeks, agreeing goals and pathways that will empower families to live full and happy lives and help children reach their developmental potential. We spoke to Heather, who told us about St James and its community and what the Development Fund grant means to them;
"On arriving at St James in July 2019 I felt strongly that I had to help the congregation to grow deeper roots personally so that they were ready to step into the vision that God was giving us.In the months that followed, we journeyed together, discerning what our role in the community could be, and in February this year we were visited by a team from Catch the Fire Church in Wembley who spent two weeks praying for us at St James, then joined us on Zoom and shared words and pictures with us, from which we were able to hear a clear message; it was time to start something new in our community. "
"There were encouragements about not worrying about being a small church and about both stepping out of the boat and letting go of it, moving into new things, and from that, the seeds of an idea to set up Growing Hope High Wycombe were sown.
Growing Hope will enable us to form relationships more easily with the local community, start to share faith with them and provide much needed support for children with additional needs and their families in our area. "St James already has a real heart for the community and are involved with other local charities such as the One Can Trust , Wycombe Homeless Connection and Lighthouse, and we are discerning that God has already laid the foundations for this project to take root and flourish. "Whilst the service will be open to people of all faiths and none, it will provide us with an opportunity to share our faith with the community and we believe will be another vehicle to show God's love, helping to shape the future of the people of Buckinghamshire. "The money awarded in this round of funding will help St James get ready to welcome a paid therapist - equipment, the costs associated with setting up a charity etc, and Heather then hopes to apply for a further grant to support the salary of the chosen therapist.
If all goes to plan, she hopes that clinics will be available from the beginning of 2022.
The next round of the Development Fund closes on 31 July.
The fund is open to all, but it is likely to be most helpful to parishes that have limited financial resources to invest in missional activity. Apply now.