YFC Calderdale launched
On Friday 14th May around 90 people witnessed the official launch of YFC Calderdale at All Saints Church in Halifax. In last few years have a number of dedicated people have worked at determining the shape of Calderdale YFC and it is so exciting to finally see the culmination of all their hard work.
The launch event was a real celebration, with eight different churches from across the region represented as well as the Christian Initiative in Calderdale Schools (CICS). Young people from All Saints and Kings Church led worship and also presented a drama on the evening. The Trustees had opportunity to talk about some of the current youthwork going on in Calderdale and how YFC can make it more effective. The trustees were presented with their Charter certificate and Gavin Calver preached on Romans 1 before the congregation were invited to consider partnering with the team in their task.
Bob Arnold; Secretary of the Centre describes how it all came about, ‘For me the journey started in a conversation with YFC National Director Gavin Calver four years ago at “Sizewell” – the YFC Impact Holiday. I had recently moved to Halifax and felt called to do something with youth work in the area. “So when are you going to get a YFC Centre started?” Gavin said. Calderdale is a mainly rural area with a series of towns and villages, of which Halifax is the largest. Many churches have no young people and there is a shortage of full time youth workers. Unbeknown to me, some other people in the area had already made contact with YFC and although I hadn’t considered it before, getting involved with YFC made sense.
Focused Christian youth work in the region began around 6 years ago when an organisation called CICS was formed. CICS are fully focused on schools work, and although they have sometimes ventured into out of schools activities this takes a lot of resourcing and can detract from their main focus. It was felt that the backing of a respected organisation such as YFC would ensure that the young people of Calderdale could be reached with the Gospel in an effective way and it is envisaged that YFC Calderdale will work in close partnership with CICS to provide events and out of school activities to closely complement the work that they are already doing.
Bob says, ‘ We are really looking forward to reaching the young people of Calderdale and our first YFC event is in July. Now the hard work really begins! ‘
