Keepin' it Real

Keepin it Real a resource for children and youth leaders aimed to help 9 to 13 year olds explore and focus on the issues of communication, reputation, conflict and negotiation

Keepin’ It Real is produced by the MethodistChildren and  children’s charity CURBS. Children in URBan Situations.

Keepin’ It Real comes at a time when the Government is asking schools to help teach children good manners and behaviour, and also to help them deal with anxiety, anger and conflicts.

Penny Fuller from MethodistChildren says “There are lots of resources to help young people deal with topics like sexuality and drugs, but not to help with less tangible things like reputation. Yet we frequently hear that some teenagers are carrying weapons either for self-protection or Street Cred, and we see in the news the terrible consequences this can have. Keepin’ It Real aims to help young people deal with these situations in very practical ways.”

CURBS specialises in working with children in urban situations, and its experience enriches the practical wisdom offered by Keepin’ It Real.
Keepin' it Real does not only apply to inner cities. “Children and teenagers everywhere are under tremendous pressure. Keepin’ It Real will help equip them to deal with difficult situations.

Available from www.mph.org.uk price £6.99 and info@curbsproject.org.uk
For loads of resources and ideas visit www.methodistchildren.org.uk 9-13s and www.curbsproject.org.uk

Methodist Youth and Children's Workers' Conference
4th – 6th February 2008 at  Felden Lodge Hemel Hempstead.

The theme of this years conference is Participation. Methodist Conference 2007 approved the development  of a five year pilot programme for a national Participation Strategy for young people. We will have a range of experts in the field of Participation including Lisa White, Participation expert from the Children’s Commissioner's office. The conference will look at good practice and will reflect on how we can achieve this in our work with children and young people.

The Conference is an excellent opportunity to network and share ideas.
Please return the attached booking form  by the end of December. The cost is £110.00 per person. Please approach your Circuit or Church for help with funding

Download the booking form here

“Stop talking and start doing”
A  Challenge from Methodist young people - 2008 Year of Action on Climate Change

Young people in the Methodist Church have issued a challenge for the Church  to take the issue of Climate Change seriously. They want every Church and all ages to be active and involved in making a difference during 2008.

In response to this JMA and World Action are taking this challenge forward. We need your input to help shape the 2008 Climate Change Project help us to produce something really effective.

We have attached two questionnaires:

One is intended for use by 9-13 year olds (Word format)

And one is intended for use by those Age 14+ and group leaders (Word format)

Please distribute these for completion and return to us by email or post by the 25th of November:
fullerp@methodistchurch.org.uk
Climate Change Project, MethodistChildren, Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR.

Rise to the challenge set by Methodist Young people. Let's make 2008 a year of all age action on climate change.

Some other news....

Any day now…. You’ll be able to make donations to JMA online!

But it’s much more interesting than that, because as well as letting people donate, you can make your own JMA fundraising page, put your photo on it, send it to everyone you know in the world AND give donors the chance to let JMA claim Gift Aid if they pay tax.

Justgiving run the service for a modest cost, so – always ready to try something new – we thought we’d give it a trial run. So please test it for us!

Have you heard of ECPAT?

ECPAT UK stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes.

It is a leading children’s rights organisation campaigning against the commercial sexual exploitation of children and for the protection of trafficked children and children exploited in tourism.

It has a new campaign called ‘Three Small Steps’. http://www.ecpat.org.uk/threesmallsteps/index.html

The Three Small Steps campaign aims to ensure that children who have been identified as trafficked, or for whom there is concern that they may have been trafficked, receive care and protection according to their needs and are treated as children first and foremost.

The campaign calls on the Government to take these steps: 

1.     Ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings without delay since it stipulates the basic standards of victim protection.

2.     Immediately withdraw the UK reservation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on immigration and nationality in order to ensure that the right to protection of all children trafficked into the UK is guaranteed and upheld.

3.     Appoint an independent national child trafficking rapporteur to be responsible for annual reporting on national statistics, trends and emerging issues.

There is a web page (http://voiceyourviews.net/eactivist/vyv.v?v=2121:561:14310) where you can send a letter to your Member of Parliament in support of the campaign in literally one minute.

Bullying

This is concern number one in a recent poll among children. It’s ignored by most churches.This year Anti-Bullying Week looks at bullying in the community, it takes place 19th-23rd November.

Why not talk about it?

www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk

Blue Friday is on 23 November 2007. It’s a non-uniform day when children, young people and adults dress in blue to demonstrate their commitment to work together to stop bullying.

See what children and young people around the UK think about bullying at:
www.nick.co.uk/saysomething or email a poem about the subject to saysomething@nickelodeon.co.uk

One in five children have experienced bullying by text, advice and resources are at   www.stoptextbully.com

Launch of Godly Play UK

Godly Play has contributed to many aspects of Church ministry, especially amongst children, since its introduction to the UK in 2001. In this period more than fifty accredited intensive training courses have taken place, and a number of exciting  projects have pushed the boundaries of Godly Play into schools, prisons and hospital settings. In order to support existing Godly Play work across the regions and direct the future development of Godly Play, a national charity has been formed: Godly Play UK.

The Trustees of Godly Play UK are pleased to announce an event to celebrate the official launch of Godly Play as an official charity.

A short service of thanksgiving, with a lecture on children's spirituality and refreshments is to be held in Poets' Corner Westminster Abbey by kind permission of the Dean & Chapter of Westminster on Thursday 6th December 2007 at 6.15pm

If you would like to attend this ecumenical event, please apply for a ticket/s by emailing Sheila.rogers@talktalk.net with your name, postal address and number of tickets required.

Tickets are free but are limited in number, so you are advised to apply early. Entrance to the event is by ticket only. The formal element of the launch will end at about 7.15pm, with wine served and an opportunity to view displays until 8pm. The St Nicholas Day lecture will be given by Dr Rebecca Nye.

Family Activity Organiser 2008

The Family Activity Organiser is a great way for families to keep track of everyone's social diary alongside interacting with Bible and Church activities. Each week has a page in the calendar with a selected Bible verse or story and various verse, prayer and church `challenges'. There is also a section dedicated to a variety of `Tearfund' causes, such as climate change, disaster relief and education with ideas for how families can help from home.

Most of the activities are geared towards younger children in the family, but there's plenty packed in to the calendar to encourage older children and adults to participate. The colour schemes and layout are clear and bold and although the dates and text have to be quite small to fit all the various sections in, it's all very user-friendly. In short, the calendar is overflowing with ideas and inspiration for family bible investigation. It would be hard for a family not to find something in here that they would enjoy doing together.
Scripture Union      £9.99     ISBN    978 1 84427268 6

For more reviwes of new books visit our Resources pages!

Godly Play Network

Thank you to all those who contacted us about the Godly Play Network. We have had enough response to move ahead with planning a day here at Methodist Church House to share our experiences and plan how to keep people in touch with each other and with developments and resources.
We are pleased to announce that we will have a Methodist Godly Play Network Day at Methodist Church House on Saturday 19th January 2008 which will be led by Peter Privett, International Regional Director of Godly Play. We will also have representations from the Trustees of the new Godly Play UK Charity with us. We are in the process of finalising timings and will produce publicity for this day in the next couple of weeks. Put the date in your diary now though!
If you would like to be part of the day or on the network list then please send us your details at children@methodistchurch.org.uk

A Leaflet explaining all about Godly Play in The Methodist Church and the Network day will soon be available - you can also request copies of this leaflet from children@methodistchurch.org.uk and it will be available to download in the next week.

New CORE Skills downloadable module

The first additional unit for Core Skills for Children’s Workers has now been published on the website. TRANSITIONS is the focus of this unit and it heralds an important new focus which has been identified in the Children’s Workforce Development Council’s new curriculum for children’s work training.
Aim: To enable workers to support children through the different transitional experiences in their journey from infancy to early adolescence

Learning Outcomes:

Know and understand the key types of transition in the lives of children.
Develop active listening skills and trusting relationships with children.
Develop strategies for supporting children, their families and carers.
Understand the role of spiritual development in coping with transition.

Using a variety of group exercises, inputs and reflections, this session challenges workers to reflect on the contribution their work and relationships with children can make towards helping children to cope with transition in their lives and build resilience in dealing with difficult situations.

There is a wealth of material available for tutors to choose from and some substantial handouts for further reading. It costs only £3 to download the module and then you can save it on your PC and return to it as many times as you like! Purchase the new module by following this link here http://www.coreskillsforchurches.com/pages/data.asp?layout=page.htm&Type=&Id=2368

If you require any further information please contact us on children@methodistchurch.org.uk 

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MethodistChildren is part of the Connexional Team of the

Penny Fuller, Steve Pearce, Mary Roseweir, Doug Swanney
MethodistChildren

A Proud participant in Takeover Day - 23rd November 2007