Starting youth work in a rural setting: two case studies

YOUTHSCAPE ARE TRAINING CHURCH LEADERS and clergy who want their church to start working with young people and want to have the right knowledge and confidence to form a strategy and action plan.

Below are two stories from church leaders who have used Launchpad in a rural setting. To find out more about how your church can use Launchpad to grow your youth work, visit the Youthscape site.

Lorraine’s story

Jane’s story

Jane was part of a Launchpad cohort in Spring 2023 in the Blackburn Diocese. She oversees a benefice of 6 churches in very rural Lancashire. Eighteen months on, she still shares with joy how much Launchpad helped – “especially in helping her to see that the small was achievable.”

Now, they have two youth groups – one in the north of the benefice and one in the south – with around six young people attending each, including a few who aren’t from church families.

Jane shared that what also really made a difference was local youth leader training open to all the parishes in the deanery, organised after Launchpad.

Rachel, the facilitator in Blackburn Diocese, arranged a one-day Youthscape Essentials training, using three of the YSE sessions. Since weekly central training wasn’t practical for those in rural Lancashire villages, and many congregation members – farmers, retired labourers, and others – weren’t keen on online sessions, they opted for a local village hall gathering with good hot pot and a well-planned programme.

The day was a huge success, with people seated around tables in their church cohorts, and with a total of seven clergy in the room! Jane shared that those in her benefice were really inspired, saying, “Come on, we can do something too” – and that’s how the second youth group in the north was started, and is still being run by those volunteers today.

In a recent conversation, Jane shared how very thankful she was, saying that the work of Youthscape has really encouraged her!