Away Day - March 2024
On the first day of Spring - equinox-wise - the Emmanuel Care for Our City leadership team took time out to get together for a day of worship and reflection. We convened at a farmhouse in the Sussex countryside on a glorious spring day which kicked off with our Housing Lead, Rob Liddiard leading us in a time of reflection and self-care, taking a short time out to 'close the door and seek our Father who is in secret'.
Matt Davis brought a financial update on our current projects, helping to frame our prayers and faith for the growing effectiveness of the church sites in the neighbourhoods we serve. Tim Jones detailed the current activities of each of our four strands (housing, wellbeing, food provision and family support) as well as the plan to group each sites activities under the 'Open Door' banner. This refers to the day(s) outside of Sunday that an Emmanuel site is open to the public, offering a combination of food bank, Alphacourse, playgroups, church services, money advice and any manner of service appropriate to the season at a site level.
The two main sessions of the day were expertly led by Steve Horne, guiding the group through the Jubilee+ 'Social Action MOT' material. This exercise gave us the time and space to assess the effectiveness and progress of our social action work at Emmanuel and was both deeply encouraging and agenda-setting for the next season ahead of us. In all a very memorable and refreshing day where we felt the Lord's hand moving us forward in our work for the areas which we serve.
New Grant to aid Financial Freedom
Mike Sandeman
The Care For Our City food banks which operate from our four locations across Brighton, Hove and Shoreham have recently successfully applied for a Financial Inclusion grant from Trussell Trust. Up until now we have been supported by ad-hoc visits from agencies such as Christians Against Poverty and Citizens Advice (among others) who come in to the food bank to help our guests with financial issues that they are facing. These experts are able to help with benefits claims, debt advice and other forms of financial assistance, and are hugely helpful for many of our guests in their hour of need. In the Shoreham site we have had more regular help from a CAP coach there.
However, we have never had a full time specialist allocated solely to working across the Care For Our City food banks. This grant will allow that to now happen, and we are delighted to be partnering with Money Advice Plus who we already have good relationship with as they have been periodically visiting some of our food banks for the last year or so. Money Advice Plus will now be funded via the grant to provide expert finical help to our clients for 32 hours a week. This will not replace all the excellent support that we receive from other agencies, but will provide a robust additional level of consistency and expertise, and will be especially welcome for the food banks where we have not had many advisors available.
Mike Sandeman who is the partnership manager for the food banks said: “
We’re keenly aware of the financial pressures on many of our guests, and we’re wanting to do all we can to help lift people out of poverty and their need to use food banks. This provision will be a tangible, practical way to help us support guests and we’re excited to develop the relationship we already have with the team at Money Advice Plus”.
We anticipate that the new advisor(s) will be up and running by some time in April 2024.
Carpenter’s Arms is 1!
Back in March 2022, Tim Jones was visiting with Rev. Martin Poole of St. Luke’s Prestonville to discuss the cross-church initiative Christian Action Brighton. In the course of the conversation, Tim asked whether there might be any practical ways that Emmanuel could be of service to other churches in the city, and Martin mentioned an immediate need to fill a space on the weekly rotation of church drop-in lunches which St. Luke’s rather wittily called the ‘Carpenter’s Arms’. “By the time I found out that that was just a ‘St. Luke’s thing’ and the other churches didn’t call it that, it was too late and I’d already had our logo made up!” joked Tim.
Fast forward a year and the ‘Carpenter's Arms @ Emmanuel’ is one year old!
We have had a great time providing a lunch on the second Sunday of each month to around 50 homeless and vulnerably housed guests. There’s always a relaxed yet festive atmosphere, and we provide newspapers, unhurried conversation and good food for a few hours. Tim said “This is church at its best; living out the Jesus life together and looking to share the blessings that they’ve enjoyed from God.”
It’s really special to be able to join with other churches in the city centre to ensure that these lunches happen every Sunday throughout the year. More information on the rota and other venues can be found at www.christianactionbrighton.org.uk/carpenters-arms
We want to say thank you to all who have been part of the stunning revolving team at Carpenter’s Arms, and have brought a consistently warm welcome to our guests each month. You are all stars and it's been a blast.
If you would like to get involved, register interest via our online signup
‘Growing Good’
The Care for Our City team have benefited from the Church Urban Fund’s ‘Growing Good’ programme, based on in depth research by the Theos think tank.
In essence, the research advocates persuasively for an approach which integrates growth, discipleship and social action at every point. Church Urban Fund visited us to find out our experiences and you can read the interview here