Become an investor in Streetspace WSM's community house

My friends, Dave and John are setting up a community house project on the Bourneville Estate in Weston-Super-Mare, one of the most deprived estates in SW England.

They need help the get the project off the ground - and are looking for people to invest financially.

They’ll take any support you’re willing to give, but are specifically looking for 130 people to invest £1000 to buy a house which will form a base for their work over the next 5 years. When the house is sold, you’ll get back a 1/130th share. If you think you could help invest, here’s the info.

Streetspace is a national network, which The Lab is involved in, that aims to change the face of youth work in the UK through innovative detached youth work and community-based projects.

Mark Yaconelli

Was at Mark Yaconelli’s day on ‘Tending the Adolescent Soul’ in Birmingham on Wednesday. Here’s some thoughts/notes.

Mark talked about the primary role of a youth worker (or perhaps any minister) as being a spiritual guide for young people - helping them to journey through the landscapes of their own spirituality. So much of what he said could apply to church leadership, pioneer ministry, community work - any role involving encounters with other people.

He also suggested that often our cultural responses to young people, as well as our youth work, is fueled by anxiety or fear, rather than love or trust.

Although the whole thing could have seemed a little ‘overspiritual’ at times (is it the film, Donnie Darko, which has the whole Fear vs. Love pseudo-Christian guy?), I quite liked his ideas, and in particular his kind of step-by-step model for interacting/developing relationship with young people:

  1. See - See the young person through the soft eyes of Jesus
  2. Be Seen - Allow yourself to be seen and accepted
  3. Hear - Mark suggested that ‘Heaven is a place where your voice is heard, fully and properly’
  4. Be Heard - Be heard and understood as a real human being, with weaknesses and flaws
  5. Moved with Compassion - The natural response to seeing and hearing someone for who they are, and being seen and heard
  6. Moved with Compassion - This compassion is then reciprocated by the young person in response
  7. Acts of Kindness - The natural response to being moved with compassion for someone
  8. Acts of Kindness - Reciprocated back by the young person
  9. Delight - Delight in the relationship, in the encounter and in the other person - the natural response to an act of kindness from another