Soul Purpose

Friday, 3 July 2009

Thank you

This letter was published in the Shropshire Star.

"On behalf of all the people at Harlescott Grange, Shrewsbury, I would like to thank all the young people who gave up their Spring Bank Holiday weekend to serve the community here (also at Sundorne and Ditherington).

We admired the way that these young people worked so hard, worked together and so enthusiastically. Their thought and commitment, dedication and love for all the people from the youngest to the oldest, from the most able to the most needy, was wonderfully evident. Something of their Christian teaching and faith being worked out in practice was evident to all.

In this area they cleared Senior Citizens' gardens, led youth drop-ins, organised a Family Fun Day, painted church toilets, cleared graffiti and put PVA glue on a mural, hosted a Hog roast evening, cut grass from front & back garden of a severely disabled lady, cleared a huge amount of blackthorn and other rubbish from a local school and picked up litter and delivered leaflets to a thousand homes.

So much goodwill was generated through their endeavours. In a day when young people often get a bad press, it was thrilling to see another side that does not often hit the headlines. We probably saw around 50 of the 100 young people that were involved during that time. We are sure that the other areas were equally thankful for all that was accomplished.

Thank you too for the leaders of this movement, called 'Soul Purpose' and for the investment of time and energy and sacrificial love that you all gave to this project again. Thank you to the 15 sponsoring church youth groups that were represented.

We believe that much good was accomplished through your endeavours and we trust that many barriers will have come down and many bridges built into our communities through the endeavours of these young people and their enthusiastic efforts.

Roy Whittall, 13, York Road, Harlescott Grange, Shrewsbury, SY! 3RD

Tel. Shrewsbury 462581."

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

TEENS CONTRIBUTE £300 MILLION A YEAR TO SOCIETY

I read this recently and obviously Soul Purpose is good evidence!

Faith is a significant motivation for voluntary work, says Evangelical Alliance report

Teenagers in England are contributing £300 million each year to the economy, through voluntary work and donations to charity, a report by the Evangelical Alliance has found.

Young People Matter, the report released today with a foreword from HRH The Prince of Wales, surveyed over seven hundred 14-18 year olds and found that 45 percent of young people volunteer at least once a month and 80 percent donate money to charity each month.

Young people who volunteer give on average 3.57 hours a month. When projected across England this is the equivalent of 33,000 full time workers and £210 million a year at minimum wage. According to the report, young people also donate approximately £110 million to charity each year.

Almost 40 percent of the voluntary work carried out by young people takes place through churches or religious organisations and 10 percent of those who declared themselves non-religious still volunteer through a religious organisation.

The report also found that the more active the young person is as a Christian, the more likely they are to volunteer. In the foreword for the report, HRH The Prince of Wales said: “I am deeply impressed by their efforts and these deserve to be recognised more widely,” concluding, “I sincerely hope that young people themselves will be inspired by the findings of this report. He continued: “What is striking, as the report highlights, is the way in which personal faith and religious organisations encourage young people to volunteer.”

Nicole May, 17, from Manchester, serves on the panel of the Manchester City Council Youth Opportunity Fund, which gives young people the chance to engage in positive activities. As part of her role, Nicole helps set up grant criteria, reviews grant applications, trains new panel members and visits beneficiaries. “My youth worker asked me if I wanted to volunteer, and I decided I wanted to give something back to the community, rather than just sitting at home watching TV,” she said. “I am a Christian, and my faith motivates me to volunteer. I am also from the Afro-Caribbean community, and since a lot of young black people get bad press, I wanted to highlight the positive things happening in the community and dispel some of the negative connotations.”

The Alliance’s General Director, Steve Clifford, said: “These results demonstrate what I have seen and known for years; that young people, contrary to the stereotypes, make a massive positive difference in our communities. Far too often they are branded as hoodies or gang members when the real statistics tell a very different story. “I hope this acknowledgement of how many 14-18 year olds are motivated to volunteer by their faith will mean that schools and Government will work with faith groups to encourage this selfless giving.”

The most common reasons for volunteering were wanting to help people (53 percent) and wanting to contribute something to society (43 percent). The most common factors hindering volunteering were lack of time (54 percent) and too much school work (52 percent). 41 percent said that gaining a recognised qualification would encourage them to volunteer.