The Haverhill School Initiative has had a busy but exciting start to the academic year, building on what has already been achieved and working on new measures and opportunities to reach out to more young people.
Haverhill Schools Initiative (HSI) is a Christian charity running since 1995 in Haverhill and Clare. It is associated with British Youth for Christ, with similar centres across the UK. The aim of HSI is to provide a live Christian perspective and help young people to develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, by effectively sharing faith and experiences, and showing how to approach life as a Christian.
Following are a few recent and current endeavors of the Haverhill School Initiative.
Café Vibe, the after school café for secondary school students, is proving to be extremely popular with high and regular attendance.
It is a great opportunity to spend time with the young people after their school day, every Tuesday between 3–5pm. Relationships can be built through laughter, games and conversation with them on both a group and one-to-one basis.
HSI is also currently running four Life Space groups in two schools, which run weekly. Two groups at Samuel Ward have been focusing on ‘sin & free will’, and two groups at Stoke College have been looking at ‘creation.’
All groups are appropriately aimed at different year groups and include games, crafts and discussion activities to explore these topics and expand the young people’s views and thoughts.
- HSI will be undertaking some assemblies over the next few weeks. These are currently scheduled to take place at Castle Manor and Stoke College. The theme of the assemblies is ‘Who do you trust?’ where staff will be bringing the message of what happens when we trust in God. These assemblies will include an interactive game for the students to participate in and a message that will speak relevantly to them.
- January 2013 sees the start of a new project at Castle Manor Academy. HSI staff are working closely with the school to launch a “Young Philosophers” course for the students. The course will comprise of sessions that explore the different elements of the Christian faith such as prayer, the church, and why Jesus died on the cross.