At the Jesus Centre

Going Well

2012-01-27T01:27:00.000-08:00

The Well Cafe had its official opening day this week, and it was an encouraging boost.

With soothing music from a keyboard (you can glimpse Simon playing in the picture's background), free tea and coffee, Adrian's luxury cheesecake (under the dome) previewing a new local business, streaming videos on the huge screen, and some media interest, the atmosphere was warm and enthusiastic.

We have surprised ourselves by the new environment that we have created in the Well. The Jesus Centre is a hectic place with lots of movement and quite a lot of noise - stressful for some at times. But the Well is an oasis of tranquillity - more than we even hoped, and very welcome.

More developments are in progress: live music events, a guitar class and book club, planters outside and a new sign, a roll out of promotions, menu 'specials', displays by local artists...

It's going Well.

Today's challenge, should you choose to accept it

2012-01-20T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Mums & Tots group meets in the Hall. Mums use the TR for access to the hall and parking buggies.
Your Learning skills groups use the Training Room and on Friday mornings these clash.
What do we do?

We looked at ways to use the main hall doors for mums access. They need: privacy (currently the door is covered each time with a curtain), access by mums but not unwanted visitors, a childproof door from the inside; and we want egress for fire escape and disabled access.

We looked at push bars, handles, locks, door bells, screens...and consulted locksmiths, then tried a thumb turn lock and bell.
No good. Discuss again.
Go for latch high on the door with handles both sides and a setting to hold the latch open when required - £250 likely (don't ask what the one pictured would cost!)

Keep the customer satisfied.

Stories from the Jesus Centre - Phil Bryan at Young At Heart lunch club

2012-01-16T04:58:00.000-08:00

Painting by Numbers

2012-01-09T05:07:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help being impressed by how much went on here on Friday.

Julia did her new The Bible And You English class in the Bridge with a keen group.
Little Ark mums and tots converted the hall into a big play room.
Reception dealt with a stream of enquiries, and support workers plied their trade of mercy.
Iain took some people to Ryton to do conservation work under the Your Future banner.
The cafe was an oasis of peace and coffee smells while people went into Your Space activity zone later. Roger helped people with CV's and Julia did more skills training (Your Learning).
Your Art painting group patiently worked, while Stuart and Betty prayed with someone in the chapel (Well Maker).
Ron (pictured) had two guys helping him to fix bikes in the yard (we have a good one that they rebuilt for sale on eBay). People used the public computers as usual.
Meanwhile Simon kept facilities wheels turning, Carole did stats inputting, Rob did lettings admin.

With a parenting course due to start in the new year, we will have filled in the range of services that we have wanted to provide all along. It's like painting by numbers, and the picture is nearly complete.
Satisfying.

Frayed Knot

2012-01-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

I've encouraged our staff to take their leave throughout the year.
Most of them are behind in taking leave, from my calculations of their entitlements against contracted hours, bank holidays factored in (or out) and lieu hours taken to date - all compared with what they might have taken with 75% of the year gone since April 1st 2011. Phew, good old spreadsheet.

A Jesus Centre is a demanding place to work, and taking time out to rest up, and/or do something different like a church activity, is helpful to keep yourself in good working order. We deal with people a lot, and it helps no one if we are frayed and ratty.

Having burned out myself years ago and been off work for three months on sleepers and anti-depressants, I know how bad it can get.

You could call it preventative maintenance, because prevention is better than cure.

F.O.P.

2011-12-29T01:04:00.000-08:00

Another encounter in the Bridge yesterday that made quite an impression.

A likeable big bloke, greying hair, perhaps thirty. I've known him for a couple of years as a rootless guy, always affable, no complaints. He hung around with another ex-soldier with serious mental health problems, now in jail.

He told me he had served for nine years and been out three. He can't stop being restless. He showed me the day's paper with a young Scottish soldier who had come back from Afghanistan and hung himself because he could not cope with his memories.

He had mates killed next to him, saw children blown up, and could make no sense of it all. He spoke of being behind the line for a rest and wondering how he could face the FOP (forward observation post) again, being fired at. There is little post combat support when you come back. I cited a recent report that as many combatants had taken their lives after the Falklands as had died in that war. He said he now sees war as completely pointless and mad.

I agreed that if I thought there was no God, I would not be able to face the madness and suffering in the world. Little wonder people take to drugs or just keep running.
But I also told him that I believe that Love has come and suffered with us in Jesus. He has been here, died a terrible tortured death, so he knows what it's like. So I can trust him. And I believe that what matters is our heart response in all this.

He thanked me for that. I hope it helps.

Three reasons for encouragement

2011-12-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

The new year usually brings discouragement to many of our drop-in visitors. Christmas has gone, a new year arrives, but nothing has got better, and it's still dark and cold.
Well there are three big developments in the city at this time, which will all help.

Coventry has a new city centre health centre opening this week. When they demolished Walsgrave hospital, closed most of the Cov & Warwick in town, and replaced them on the site with a huge new spaceship called the University hospital, they consulted people (inc us) about what facilties we wanted in the city centre.
In the meantime everyone had to trek out to Walsgrave for any help at all (except the NHS walk in centre), which meant walking if you were skint.
Not surprisingly we wanted a lot in town, so the new health centre is wopping, and includes the walk in centre too. It will help many of our clientele who find it hard to get around.

The Salvation Army hostel in Lincoln Street is being replaced with a brand new one just nearby, and it is due to open in January. It is self catering and has only slightly fewer beds than the old one. Residents are looking forward to the move and higher quality facilities.

Addiction services including Community Drug Team (CDT) and Swanswell Alcohol Service have been taken over by Addaction, a big outfit with a good track record, based on the recovery model - meaning the assumption that addicts can recover, rather than remain addicts for life even if clean (as twelve step programs maintain). That too should be good news for many.

It's easy to knock institutions like these, but I think this is all good news.
So here's to a happy new year for many.

No One Tells Me What's Going On

2011-12-23T03:18:00.000-08:00

It is always a defeat when someone says 'No one tells me what's going on round here'.

We use a lot of means to keep everyone in the picture. And 'we' means the managers mainly, being responsible to keep everyone informed.

We have just set up a weekly volunteer update sheet to keep volunteers, staff and others informed of changes. It is made available n Sunday mornings when the church meets, and we update it at our weekly managers' meeting. We'll see if it works by the uptake and feedback.

Apart from the usual signs in various places at the Centre, and leaflets in reception, we also communicate in these ways:
- We announce things to the church congregation on Sunday mornings, issue occasional editions of CJC News (colourful, newsy) and a Bulletin (more boring updates), entries are put in the national church bulletin Together, the CJC Facebook page is updated weekly. Every quarter we devote a Sunday morning to Jesus centre information and inspiration for the church.
- There is a daily gathering of everyone on site at 1.30pm where everyone gets a turn to talk about some topic that is set, and of course news can be shared and prayed about.
- There is a bimonthly Bridge team leaders' meeting. They also refer to the Bridge day book at every drop-in session. Support Workers have regular team meetings, and service leaders have support sessions (but not often enough). each volunteer has a support partner to talk to and give feedback.
- Receptionists have a PC file to check for instructions.
- We run training events for all volunteers quarterly, and use home made videos for instruction then and at other times.
- We email groups with relevant information, or individuals, and use texts a lot too.

And if all else fails, we talk to people.

18 Decisions

2011-12-14T01:27:00.000-08:00

That's what we achieved in our weekly managers meeting yesterday - it must be a record.

Regular speed tests for all the computers
Cafe sign design
Training emails for receptionists
Fence design for cafe
Disabled ramp in car park
Weekly volunteer information sheet
Support worker laptop replacement
Heating system for reception
Cafe leaflet requirement
Visitor bag storage rule change
Specific visitor bags assignment
Friday management cover
Cafe cover for leave
Extra training for a volunteer
Future drop-in team leader selection
Xmas closure plan
Strategic use of space and closure of one service session
Proposal to build an extra room.

It also took all three of us to make most of those decisions.
Great minds don't think alike, but three minds can work synergistically and creatively.
No doubt there will be more to sort out next week.

A Wider Net

2011-12-12T04:20:00.000-08:00

In our tenth year our net is widening.

For most of the decade since 2002 our work with visitors has been dominated by Bridge drop-in folk. We have seen many lives improved, many people housed, a lot of faith imbibed with dozens of baptisms into the church, and many people becoming volunteers to give something back for help received.

But while this has been, and continues to be, encouraging, it has never been our whole aim. We are here for everyone in Coventry, not just the homeless and disadvantaged, but it has been harder to get the general public through the doors than the more obviously needy.

Now we have the Well Cafe attracting the public, basic skills classes bringing in many learners, and other services drawing in new people.
So this Jesus Centre is becoming a wider net to catch people that we can serve in Jesus' name. And some will find faith too. We are Christians, after all.

I'm Not Taking Sides

2011-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

Did you hear how she got that Polish couple housed?!
- Yes but she cut a lot of corners to do it.
Well they had a week-old baby that was going to be taken off them.
- But how responsible are they really?
It was an emergency, come on.
- Well how much should we be driven by peoples' crises?
She said it was a miracle to get the place so quickly.
- OK but it cost us a thousand pound bond.
Yes but it's council money, and not the first bond for that amount that we've done.
- And it's running down fast at this rate.
Do you just think of money and forms and watching our backs, or helping people in such need, even if it is a but hairy?
- I don't think so, but we can't operate like that every day, or you'll go pop for a start, and then me when I have to cover for you.
- I do see what you mean of course. Sorry but, someone needs me at reception.

Unity in Practise

2011-11-28T04:12:00.000-08:00

I met Chris Waddell, leader of New Horizons church, in our cafe for coffee last week. He is very supportive of our work, and keen for churches to complement each other in the city in the work they do. He is looking at a marriage support and parenting service that they might run, which we would certainly refer people to.

Mosaic Church host Foodbank which has grown meteorically in Coventry, and we are one of their distribution points.

Westwood Church send a team of young people to help in Your Space every week, and they engage really well with the visitors there. It is part of their training experience too.

Jubilee Church provides us with much needed storage space, and run a high quality debt counselling service.

Queens Road Baptist Church hosts the Christmas night shelter, and we collect surplus food and clothing afterwards to give out here.

The Salvation Army hostel houses many that we meet as well.

I could go on.

Many churches send us donations of clothing, food, toiletries etc, which are very heart-warming, and life-saving for those in need.

From our viewpoint, we feel greatly supported by many churches and individual people in the city. It seems that they value us as Christians doing this front line work, and their support is part of it. Every church project to help others draws support from Christians and the public as a vehicle of good charitable giving.

From a city perspective, I can envisage the churches dove-tailing their various projects to provide a kingdom-expressing range of help to all. Chris would agree.

The numbers game

2011-11-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

1) My PC was running hideously slowly, so I decided to delete old emails from my Sent box. The program creaked when I tried to delete 9900 emails at once, going back to 2009. Maybe I should do my housekeeping more often.

2) Since the 1st September (11 autumn weeks) CJC has logged 4959 visits by 764 different people to 342 service sessions in 25 different services - and 212 sessions with agency workers on site in 19 sessions.
This included 183 new people.
We logged 312 outcomes so far - progress in peoples' lives - in that time.

Breaking Free

2011-11-07T04:50:00.000-08:00

I talked to a guy in the Bridge and found his story of how he has been getting free of drugs interesting. There were several familiar strands.

He started when he was a teenager. A mate gave him some stuff at the pub and he thought 'Why not? I'll try anything once'. He did not become addicted until a year later when he broke up with a girlfriend and was in emotional pain. That is certainly a familiar strand.

For years it all seemed normal, including the violence, the crime and prison spells. Then he moved away and started to realise that it wasn't normal, as well as being simply tired of the lifestyle (another strand).
He did a Trust The Process course over many weeks, and learned to reflect on his own behaviour, attitudes and progress. That helped a lot, while he also realised that he wanted to be different for his ten year old daughter (still with his ex and her partner) - ah yes, another big strand.

Now he wants to start putting something back into life by volunteering to helep others with a similar story (strand), while recognising that he can still slip into old habits of thinking - such as 'If I can just get that I'll be ok', which is classic addiction-think.
He enjoys coming to the Bridge drop-in to get various things, and we enjoyed our conversation. It is excellent to see someone breaking into new freedom.

He's 40 now. It can take a long time to turn a life around, and there is not just one key. But it can be done.

On the way up

2011-10-31T03:43:00.000-07:00

I bumped into 'A' in town.
He was nearly through a course of treatment for Hep C, not a pleasant experience.
He had been clean of drugs for some time and off methadone. The key to that was getting a place to live. When he was living on there streets he had been attacked with knives and bottles, even kidnapped.
It was hard too when his brother died who had muscular dystrophy, and their dad hit the bottle. 'A' wanted to work when the treatment finished, or maybe he would volunteer with CDT first, like other ex-Bridge visitors.
I remember him using the Bridge in its early years, looking ill and desperate. It was good to see him getting on his feet at last.

Roll Up For A Calendar

2011-10-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

Rune runs Your Art on Friday afternoons. It is an oasis of tranquillity where people can lose themselves in painting and drawing.

It is said that peoples' happiest times include when they are concentrating on what they want to do, be it an extreme sport, or this fine focus of careful artwork.

Rune provides a lot of materials, and offers restrained advice.

The results are remarkable. Dilys is over 80 and turns out arresting paintings that are full of life and colour. Many others have enjoyed the group and produced attractive pictures, like the one above.

We have selected twelve pieces of work and they are now with a printer to turn into a 2012 calendar. We shall offer it at cost, £4.50 inc postage, and invite donations to the Centre on top.

If you want one, email info@coventryjesuscentre.org.uk or phone 024 7655 0033

Faire's Fair

2011-10-16T02:50:00.000-07:00

Julia Faire runs Your Learning at CJC.

We looked out for someone to run skills classes for a long time, as a missing piece in our jigsaw of services.

Last year she started up two days a week, and now she does three days of classes and one to one work, with a fourth day of preparation. She is a great success.

Having taken information about the service around many agencies when she started, she now gets the bulk of her referrals from the JobCentre. They are mainly people needing help with their English, being of many nations.

Julia now has four volunteers helping her - Karen, Betty, Amanda and Preet. Roger, who is a trustee, is about to start helping people with CV's, and Iain has just run a course with Julia on confidence building.
Julia arranged some training this week for helping people into employment, and Iain is going to take that on alongside Julia.

So her humble empire expands. She really is unassuming, but she clearly has a gift in this area and is putting it to very good use.

It is definitely one of the best thing to have happened at CJC.

What A Centre Manager Does (Did)

2011-10-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

One day (not the book title) last week I dealt with two hirers paying for time at CJC. One pressed for free time, but we don't give that normally, even for Christians. Some try it on.

The builders asked me for information about the doors they were fitting for our cafe, so I referred them on. I didn't want to tell them to put them in the wrong way round!

I ran the Bridge drop-in that day and led a Jesus Time, talking about the working girl that was killed recently who was quite well known to us. People were thoughtful.

The picture is Hazel in the Bridge. She's great fun.

Receptionists needed bits of help, being new or unfamiliar with people booking in. It helps to keep up with who's who.

Someone needed an electric card, so I got the key for that cash tin and issued the card, instructing the receptionist as well.

I chased a quote for printing a calendar using paintings from the Your Art group. I shouldn't have to chase - don't they want business?

I did a couple of video takes with visitors for a DVD we want to produce to send out to supporters. It's coming along slowly.

Some helpers needed covering - lads who easily get restless. A staff member expressed concerns about such folk on her support session form, so I talked it over with her.

Donations of clothing etc rolled in so I dealt with them and put some stuff away.

The weekly cash cheque needed taking to the bank - not my favourite job, but hey.

And the usual admin including emails to answer, invoices to log and pass, stationery to order, a service to promote that I run, stats to update, donation box to empty.

There was more but I won't bore you.

At the end of the day I did the round of security checks.

Take the post, set the alarm, and I'm gone.

Business As Usual

2011-10-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today, some people learned more English and did some CV's.

A group gained confidence and another did some good artwork (photo).
A big group enjoyed recreational activities (and Paul convincingly beat Tony at table tennis) while Ron fixed bikes in the yard; Bev will swap two bikes for one that he has done up.
Val supported various people and Reception helped some others.
Mums & Tots enjoyed Little Ark in the hall; Claire's friend Sarah came again.

The public computers were in good use as usual.

The cafe extension's partition was being fitted.

The kitchen cooker was given a good clean.

I invited some people to Survivors suicide bereavement group later this month, having fixed the date.

Last night we saw a few working girls on the beat, talked to them and gave them food and drink; it had turned cold.

Yesterday the weight loss group met and the first fitness group turned the hall into a gymn.
The allotment also got some more attention.

Andy, Steve, Abdullah, Jozsef and others have been helping out, which occupies them usefully.

Agency outreach workers have been helping people in the Bridge drop-in, which otherwise continues its work of meeting basic needs of the homeless etc, and helping them make the next move.

Business as usual.

Swinging Cats

2011-10-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Space.
Coventry Jesus Centre is like the Tardis. It's much bigger on the inside than the outside. Well perhaps I should amend that to: we cram much more in it than looks possible from the outside.

The gallery is the worst case, where the photocopier and a printer live, and linen cupboards, filing cabinets, chairs, donated clothing to be sorted, back up food parcels. And now Rob has made himself a workstation there!
The Bridge room has at least nine services use it including the drop-in itself, that gets 60-70 visitors in five mornings a week. Plus lettings.
The Training room where Julia is based is also used for Mums & Tots (buggy park), interview space, church overflow space and prayer room, some storage.
The little chapel is mainly used for interviews, sometimes prayer!
The yard is home to Re-Cycle bike repairs, but also to Foodbank stock, surplus clothing, a paint and household goods store, and of course vehicle parking.
The hall is worked hard with Your Learning overflow, Your Space activities, the current New Friends course, our church on Sundays, Little Ark mums and tots, and lettings.
And so on. Every space is multi-use, and offices often 'hot desked'.

We are not into swinging cats, but this is not the place to do it!

Now we are about to commission our new cafe extension space. I make it about 14 square metres in floor area, so not huge. I wonder how many uses that will have.

Well at least we are getting the most out of our excellent little Centre.

Kirsty, 25

2011-09-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of week's ago I was in the Bridge after a drop in session had finished. Julia was having her lunch there.

The door opened and a girl came in. She should not have been let in, so it was a bit of an unwanted intrusion.
She came over and I recognised Kirsty from the beat. We had met her a lot on the streets of Hillfields late on Thursday nights.
A couple of years ago she was usually half drunk, and always angry. She would rant for a while, and sometimes she let us pray with her.

This was Kirsty again, but quite changed. The couple of times we had seen her recently, she had reduced her drinking, and had calmed down a lot. She was living at a hostel across the road.

My log from our outreach says -
17.6.10 prayed with her, 24.6.10 miscarriage, 23.12.10 lost 5 month old baby, 21.7.11 still drinks - grown up.

She came across the room and gave me a hug, and Julia looked a bit surprised. As she left I said 'Kirsty has changed a lot. She used to be very angry'. She agreed with a smile and went out.

Last Friday she was killed in Hillfields in Catherine Street. We had seen her there on other occasions. The paper said she was hit by a car driven carelessly by a 20-year old man. We heard that a punter pushed her out of the car and then drove over her.

She was 25.

P.S. Last night we saw a number of the girls. One told us that Kirsty fell over drunk in the road and was hit, another that she was standing in the road and a car came round the corner and hit her, and in fact two cars hit her. So it looks like it was more an accident than deliberate. Either way, she's gone, and there are flowers by the roadside and a police sign asking for witnesses. Bless you Kirsty.

What A Team

2011-09-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

Val, Tony and Barney are our three support workers. They work together helping a lot of people in need. Barney told me what they do:

Interview bond scheme applicants, fill in forms, liaise with landlords and housing benefit. They usually pray with people at the first interview, with permission.
Visit tenants, have cups of tea, try their x-box (ahem), tune their tv, fix their computer (Tony is good at that), listen a lot, use the progress star on a laptop, help with forms, give lifts, move furniture, go and get decorating materials with housing vouchers, etc.
Val does front line stuff, getting clients into accommodation, working with staff from agencies, the council etc. She is great at reactive jobs, helping people with urgent problems, and not giving up on them when they mess up.
There are just a few people that they aren't keen to help (Barney admitted), who just want them to run around for them all the time; and others they know will be nothing but trouble.
Barney works with Tony a lot. He also fills in gaps in the admin and does the boring Supporting People returns.
Tony is very persistent with people; he has a big heart. He runs Your Space and other services too, and fixes broken chairs.

They all compliment each other well. What a team.

Jesus Centres - why do we want them?

2011-09-19T03:17:00.000-07:00

What do Jesus Centres bring to the church?

The question was asked at a JC managers meeting.

Some might say 'just difficult people', or 'a drain on finances' or 'stress'.

Well they do deal with some challenging folk, but some of them are 'diamonds in the rough', and also there are many more who are not difficult, that we can bless.
Finances? God provides for his work, and we have proved it with JCs; the more you give, the more he provides.
And yes there is stress, but God uses it to test hearts and also our care for one another. Wisdom makes a way.

Apart from those points, Jesus Centres allow many more people to contribute heart, time, skills, money, etc, and all can grow in ministry and character.
They bring to us a tide of new people to help and show Jesus to.
They provide a lot that helps new members get built in and supports them through the practical hurdles of life.
They are a 'city on a hill' witness, doing the name of Jesus good.
They make church available through the week.
They draw support from other Christians and friends who are glad that we channel it well.
They grow our faith and love.
They help us keep up with legal requirements and the spirit of society.
They are prophetic for us as a church.

I could go on.

How high the walls

2011-09-19T03:08:00.000-07:00

My sister sent an urgent note to her doctor via a friend, who posted it through the surgery door. When she went for an appointment she asked if the doctor had seen the note. What note? She insisted that they search and it was found, without the envelope that shouted urgent, in the mail in tray. Getting angry, she told them to look in the bin for the envelope, where it was found.
Without that note a vital blood test would have been missed. Then the doctor got a roasting. The staff had just ignored an urgent request, and she got a due apology.

The trouble is, even making appointments is difficult, and you get the impression that many organisations have developed walls to protect them from their customers. All too often this means that the people that they are there for are treated as an inconvenience.

I know from the Jesus Centre where I work how inconvenient customers can be. I can't walk the few metres across the foyer without someone calling to me for help, and all the more because I am a manager who can make things happen for them.

It is true that the only way to avoid this is to avoid the foyer, and the phone, which of course I do occasionally.

But most of the time we all have to remember that helping visitors is what we are there for - not our convenience.
It's another fine balance.

What Good Is It?

2011-09-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Doing a quick check, to answer the question somehow:
£200,000 a year, 14 staff, 65 volunteers, 25+ services, nine years,
18,000 visits this year by 2100 different people.

Outcomes under the five aims in 2011 so far:
Aim 1 Meeting needs 244
Aim 2 Capacity building 392
Aim 3 Promoting Christian faith 125
Aim 4 Social cohesion 175
Aim 5 Volunteers, agencies and efficiency 76

Unknown 20
Makes 28 outcomes a week

That includes people housed, skilled, made healthier and more positive, gaining friendships and gaining faith. All with God's help by prayer.

That's what.

Who's Next

2011-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

Nothing succeeds like success.
But that's nothing to do with succession. And succession is what we must crack for our Jesus Centres.

The main managers are all pushing retirement age, or at least an age when this sort of management becomes pretty taxing. By their nature Jesus Centres demand varied abilities and a lot of hands on management - be it sorting volunteers, dealing with difficult visitors, making policy decisions in novel situations, or just standing in for anybody else at times.

So the point is, we need to find the right people to replace us. Richard Branson is reputed to have said that his only skill is hiring people, which makes sense. But apart from identifying the right people, we do have a limited pool to draw upon, since the job description limits it to those committed to our ethos and faith. An atheist could apply, but it would not be unreasonable to select one of our Christian church members as more suitable.

So I look forward to having a younger person alongside me for perhaps a year, and I can download all I know. Then they can take it further, and put their own fresh stamp on it all.

We do rely on God a lot to make Jesus Centres work, and this is one area where that faith will be essential for success. I mean succession.

Compassion Fatigue

2011-08-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

When you have seen too many images of suffering, you can run short of pity. Charities collecting for disaster relief call it compassion fatigue.

We experience a related response in working with Bridge visitors. But it's not the stories of tragedy that numb the sympathy. It is the blatant selfishness. But of course the last thing we want is the genuine to be neglected because of the takers.

So how do we avoid this compassion fatigue?

I asked the question at a recent mid-day get together. Answers included:

'Try not to let it affect me.'
'Say no to demanding people.'
'Step back sometimes, either literally with time out, or inside.'
'Be selective, bend over backwards for some, see others as users; get my heart right.
'Sometimes get negative and feel like giving up and getting another job. I tell God it's not me and I'm overwhelmed. He helps me to get it in perspective and cope with their demands.'
'I share with someone at home. I did get to the point where I could not do it any more, and had a breakdown. Now I do different work and could not work there again.'
'I generally find I can enjoy people, even the selfish, and I remind myself that God is kind to the ungrateful and selfish.'
Being able to talk about it together is itself a tonic for the condition.

I hope that others will not get sick of bearing with me.

At Your Service

2011-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

The Centre runs a full week of services:

Monday - Although we are only open from 10am to 1pm for reception enquiries, Your Learning skills classes happen all day, Support Workers go out and about to bond scheme tenants, and every other Monday the Young At Heart lunch club for over 50's happens. Re-Cycle bike repair goes on in the yard on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. The Well Cafe is due to open Monday to Friday 10.30am to 3pm, following a major refurbishment. Help with basic IT can be booked in the week.

Tuesday - The Bridge drop-in is busy from 9am to 12 noon, and the Anchor team nurse and Swanswell alcohol worker talk to visitors in there too. Support Workers take appointments all week. Your Learning runs, including English conversation classes that overflow with learners. From 2-4pm people with foodbank vouchers come for food parcels, which are made up to order. Rough sleepers can get a special food parcel in the afternoons with another voucher. Some go to the allotment in Radford to work there in the afternoon, and on Thursdays.

Wednesday - The Bridge is open again (with drugs outreach workers, an ex-offenders advisor), and on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. In the afternoon Your Space is the activity zone in the hall that typically gets 30 people in, enjoying friendship and recreation with refreshments. In term time a team from Westwood Church help out there, and Knit & Chat happens in Your Space too. Progress Interviews happen by appointment in the afternoon. Your Story is where friends meet to tell their story. Habit Breaker is a Christian approach to tackling addictions, and a number have been helped by this group. In the evening Explorers is for spiritual searchers, with videos to discuss.

Thursday - Bridge, Support Workers, allotment. Reception is generally busy every day, booking people in to services, issuing mail (people can use our address), booking people on to one of the computers available for public use, receiving donations and deliveries, taking calls and messages, and lots more. Your Weight support group meets this afternoon, and Bible Life is a group that looks at what the bible says about life.

Friday - Your Future short courses happen from 9.30am to 12.30pm, such as cookery or photography or healthy walks. Little Ark mums & tots group enables mums to meet while their childen play safely. Your Space is in the afternoon again, and Your Art provides a tranquil alternative. Your Learning offers one to one learning. Well Maker is healing prayer by appointment, mainly on Fridays. Strum It guitar lessons happen today.

Saturday, Sunday - Apart from the Bridge drop-in in the mornings, the Jesus Fellowship Church meets in the morning and evening in the hall on Sundays, and other groups, mainly also churches, hire rooms to meet in. The Sunday evening JFC event is Solid Roick Cafe, a cafe-style multi media session where people can talk together freely and find out what church and faith are all about.

Most days all the staff and volunteers on site meet to share thoughts and pray together. It takes a dozen staff and around 60 volunteers to keep it all going, and we feel the need of God's grace! But he provides.

Find out more about any or all this at www.covjc.co.uk, or phone us on 024 7655 0033, or email info@coventryjesuscentre.org.uk.

At your service!

Me & Them

2011-08-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

Someone called me a rubbish manager a while back. They still work here and we get on ok.

A staff member from a local agency doing outreach in the Bridge said their management are useless. Does Coventry have a problem producing capable managers? Maybe, but that is another story.

What do I think about my management, that is, the trustees that I am answerable to, and their central office admin? It is so easy to complain and criticise, while they probably have cause to complain about how this Centre team works, and me in particular: 'Not him again!'

I expect that every organisation with branches and a central office have some issues of this nature. Distance makes us impersonal, and therefore easy to caricature, and blame.

One thing we did was to set up quarterly meetings of Jesus Centre managers with our chairman trustee; well he set it up. It certainly helps to break down those barriers that can grow up of suspicion and misunderstanding.

The rest of the time, we just need to remember that the person over there ('them') has a demanding job to do as well.

To shut or not to shut

2011-08-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Well it happened.
CJC did not open on Saturday morning for the Bridge drop-in. Various team leaders were away, and the only stand-ins available were me (centre manager) and Ann (deputy). Both of us were tired but she was willing. I wasn't. So I thought it was good in principle to shut, and we did.

The principle? Maybe against pride that we have never shut for lack of staff. Maybe to say sacrifice is good but not always wise. And that sometimes we are spread very thin.

I don't often put my foot down like that. Come to think of it, I didn't check it with the management committee exec. But we are half of it, and I'm pretty sure the others would agree. See if I get a call.

Rolling It Out

2011-08-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

In the late 90's the Jesus Fellowship main leader, Noel Stanton, now promoted to glory, spoke of having Jesus Centres to serve all kinds of people.

An old cinema was bought in the centre of Northampton and refurbished to hold a Jesus Centre. A small pilot scheme was run in a shop premise while the refurb was happening.

In 2002 Coventry jumped the queue and opened a Jesus Centre in what had been a garage building. The congregation had been looking for a home for years, so this met two needs in one.

The vision was being birthed, not without pain at both Centres, as strain was felt in various quarters, but many good lessons were learned as well.

London Jesus Centre was dramatically established near Oxford Circus in a building that was previously a convent. It has flourished, though behind the scenes struggles have been familiar.

Now we are poised to open Sheffield Jesus Centre in an old Methodist church centre, and it looks very good. The issue there will be finding enough manpower to run a full service, as the local church congregation is smaller than the others involved so far.

Our Birmingham folk are coming up fast behind Sheffield, having found premises that we have made an offer on, and will buy subject to planning approval. The building will not need a major refit and the team is getting well prepared, so watch them hit the ground running, maybe even later next year.

Beyond that, we envisage running the first mini Jesus Centre, probably in Leicester. This would be a variation on the franchise, tailored to a small congregation but still offering the range of services of other Jesus Centres. It would be an echo of the pilot project in Northampton back at the start of the decade and the whole venture, rolled out since the vision was launched.

Northampton, Coventry and London Jesus Centres each get 500+ visits a week. Each records over 100 outcomes a week, or significant progress made buy visitors as a result of help received.
Jesus Centres deliver, and there is much more on the way.

Thanks for all support given.

How To Run A Jesus Centre

2011-07-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Get some tissue and clean that coffee ring off. Pick up old bag labels off the laundry floor; get the fluff from the filter and bin it.Put the donated clothes away.
Take that note downstairs and check the lettings diary against it.
Turn the reception monitor off.
Answer the phone and give some information.
Email Simon about a broken plug.
Go outside and walk around, look at the liverwort by the wall and the ants at work.
Add that phone number to the list, edit that leaflet. Diary to speak to him when he gets back in a month.
Thank them for cleaning up.
Turn that light off.
Note to look for Harry to ask about the allotment.
Print off some action points to follow up.
Ask Ron about the bikes to be collected.
Take the electric card tin key to reception.
Check how to spell accommodation and correct it on the agency database.
Add a name and an output to the visitor database.
Go to the bank.
Forward Barney the daily website checklist.
Put the back up tape in.
Apologise to her for my sharp words.
Plan tomorrow's meeting.
Decipher my own note.
Help make up a food parcel and do the paperwork. Tell the volunteer about the bits he missed.
Make a brew and wash up the old cup. Update the do list.
Write a blog.

Not necessarily in that order.

Hindsight

2011-07-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

I took a phone call and heard a highly distressed Scottish man's voice. Can you help someone in distress? My daughters are twins and one hung herself after she was abused, and now the other one has tried to take her life. I said come over, and met him near the Centre.
I listened to his tale of family pain, his daughter's abuse by a pastor in Ireland, his mates killed in Afghanistan when he served there, and fielded his intense touchiness which seemed understandable in the circumstances. He had come down from Shetland, an obscure island that he had only been on for five weeks, to take his second daughter back to, and he had to be back quickly. He was asking for the fare back for both of them - over £200.
He tried to ring Frank Barry, the pastor of the little Wee Free group there, but got no reception. I asked for more evidence of his story, and he called a parole number in Tralee, Ireland, to confirm his own details, but they could not give such info out.
I felt pressurised, rang a colleague in our church, who confirmed that he and I were not authorised to give that much anyway. I decided to give him £50 as the best I could do. Bells were quietly ringing, but I gave him the notes.
He did not protest, calmed down, asked for the way back to the city centre, and left without a thank you.
I had been conned.
The story was clever, with every means of checking it plausibly blocked.
As a friend said later, better to tell him to come back in a while to give time to check further, and he would probably not have bothered. Otherwise just say no, despite the emotional pressure.
Have I been here before?

Making Progress

2011-07-11T03:20:00.000-07:00

Jesus Centre managers got together last week in Sheffield.

We looked round the new Jesus Centre there that is due to open in August. Builders were swarming over it and it is looking good - spacious, well thought out and only 5 minutes from the city centre. It is looking a lot like the picture now. Great progress.

We talked about various ongoing issues, including ways to help visitors to make progress in their lives and not remain stuck in various sorts of need.

Many simply become more positive in outlook and drift away in time. But we do help many others to make more substantial progress.

Each Centre has tried providing special services and sessions to promote personal progress, from art and film-making to short training courses and outings. Uptake is nearly always small and the return on investment relatively low.

What works better is offering a range of services on a flexible basis, such as emotional support, employment advice, progress interviews, addictions support etc.

Dedicated support workers are a step on from that, taking appointments and working with visitors to tackle many issues.

Coventry Jesus Centre runs Your Space, which is recreational time on two afternoons, with pool, table tennis, board games and free snacks and drinks. It fosters social engagement, provides scope for constructive conversations, enables other services to be bolted on, such as knitting or a guitar class, and enables some visitors to help by setting up, taking down and running the refreshments. London Jesus Centre runs outings that facilitate relationship-building.

All that leads to the most effective way to promote progress - let people help out and then go on to be a trained helper or volunteer. It often goes with finding faith or more Christian commitment, and involvement with the church.

People need the whole package - their basic needs met, relevant help and ongoing informed support, friendship, involvement and purpose. Jesus Centres are intentionally holistic and between us we are developing our work to be more effective.

Our Ten Millionth

2011-07-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've done a bit of homework.

It is widely accepted now that human activity, notably in burning fossil fuels and destruction of forests (and pollution of the sea?), have raised the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.
Recently it has risen 22%, from 315ppmv in 1960 to 385 ppmv in 2010. Global CO2 emissions of CO2 by humanity have risen from 21 billion tonnes per year in 1990 to 30 billion tonnes in 2010. And rising.

Various natural forces affect global temperature, which make it harder to separate out the human effect – such as volcanoes, solar cycles, ocean currents, etc – but the concensus is that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are driving up CO2 concentrations, which correlate strongly with temperature.

Projections of temperatures give a 1-2°C rise by 2050 and 2 to 5°C rise by 2100. A 2°C rise is generally expected to be disastrous for human life on earth. Sea levels will rise as ice caps melt, but how much is as yet unknown. Extreme weather will increase in frequency. Maybe the worst drought in 60 years in the horn of Africa is a typical result.

Even with current policies to reduce them, global emissions are still expected to continue to grow over the coming decades, with ominous consequences.

Permafrost melting which releases methane (a potent greenhouse gas) could cause positive feedback accelerating warming and climate change and triggering a tipping point for sudden rapid climate shift. Did you see The Day After Tomorrow, which was silly but made you think?

What can we at our little Jesus Centre do about such a vast problem? Our CO2 emissions are about 50 tonnes per year from gas and electricity use (making a carbon footprint of about 14 tonnes). The UK CO2 emission is about 500 million tonnes per year, or 10 million times that of CJC.

Well we do our bit. We replaced our boilers last year with more efficient ones, reducing our gas usage significantly. We installed radiator thermostats and reflective window film; we use recycled paper cups, low energy light bulbs and low energy computers. We recycle cooking oil, paper, cardboard, clothing, bicycles. We take a lot of waste to the tip where waste is sorted for recycling (Coventry recycles a good percentage of waste). Most of our staff and volunteers live nearby and many walk to work. And we are assessing the scope for solar power from photovoltaic cells (solar panels on the roof).

So that's what we are doing about our ten millionth. How about you?

It Keeps Coming

2011-07-04T04:40:00.000-07:00

It has been encouraging lately to receive donations of all kinds to CJC.

A man dropped off loads of food as he was moving house. Admittedly some was out of date - I tried the Sugar Puffs dated 1998 and found it perfectly edible!
Silver Spoon are sending us a tonne of sugar. We just have to find space to store it.
Swifts from Leicester sent us a big box of socks after we touted round.
Another bit of phoning round by Sunitha gained us a good batch of Talk Talk womens clothing.
Rob got a lot of chairs free from a friend to use int he new cafe space. We had budgeted £300 for them. (Pictured)
Plus daily drops of clothing for the Bridge, a delivery of stock for our Food Bank store, some cash donations in the boxes, and so on.
We are also holding out for some substantial grants that aour fundraisers have bid for - we need that too.

And I might as well do a commercial:

Text JACT00 £10 to 70070 to donate to Jesus Army Charitable Trust for Jesus Centres to make a difference today.

Thanks everybody!

Working with the Food Bank

2011-06-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

It's time I wrote about Food Bank. Some of this is from http://www.trusselltrust.org/

The first person came to CJC with a voucher two weeks ago. I took her to our little chapel and offered her a drink and some information to read about our services. She had no special dietary needs, so I went to the shed and used the one-person checklist to make up her food parcel, weighed it out, and took it back to her. She had noticed emotional support on our leaflet and I linked her to a trained volunteer to help her. That is the added value of Food Bank.

It was all started by Carol and Paddy Henderson who founded The Trussell Trust in 1997. It focussed on improving conditions for the 60+ children sleeping at Central Railway Station in Bulgaria. The Trust’s work soon expanded to the UK.
Paddy received a call from a desperate mother in Salisbury saying “my children are going to bed hungry tonight – what are YOU going to do about it”. Paddy investigated local indices of deprivation and ‘hidden hunger’ in the UK. The shocking results showed that significant numbers of local people faced short term hunger as a result of a sudden crisis. Paddy started Salisbury foodbank in his garden shed, providing three days of emergency food to local people in crisis.
In 2004 the UK foodbank network was launched teaching churches and communities nationwide how to start their own foodbank.With over 100 foodbanks currently launched, the goal is for every town to have one.

People across the UK struggle to feed themselves and their families. Redundancy, illness, benefit delay, domestic violence, debt, family breakdown and paying for heating during winter are just some of the reasons why people go hungry.
Each foodbox contains a minimum of three days nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food.

The Jesus Centre is one of five church centres in Coventry where people can take Food Bank vouchers to get a substantial food parcel. One is Mosaic Church, Hillfields, where the Coventry branch of Food Bank is based.
Vouchers can be obtained from about 60 different agencies that are set up to assess applicants. We just do distribution.

The food mainly comes from collections at supermarkets that agree to it. Volunteers assemble and ask customers to give a spare item of food. To offer help with this work, contact: paulinathorpe@mosaicchurch.co.uk

Last week we had three people with vouchers, so we are on the map and the work will grow from here. Well done Food Bank.

A Few Minutes Of Your Time

2011-06-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

It was one of those calls. A government something doing a survey - would only take a few minutes.
I wanted to say go away and leave me alone, but as it's hard to really say no, and he sounded vaguely Asian and it must be hard doing this stuff in a call centre somewhere, and because it might just be of use to someone, I said ok. Now try and be patient and tell the truth.

He rattled through the questions like he had said it all dozens of times. I had to concentrate more than I liked.

How many staff? (Fortunately I have a list on my wall to check) 13.
How many managers? 3.
How many doing care work? 3 (support workers fit that).
How many admin? 3.
Customer service (reception fits that)? 1.
Catering? 1.
Something about skills? 1. He said er that's 12. Check again. Well we have a fundraiser; call it admin (is it?).
How many have degrees? 6 I thought.
A levels, BTechs and that sort of thing (he reeled off equivalents)? I guessed 2.
How many have been on training off site in the last 12 months? I reckoned 6.
How many doing a professional qualification, like an NVQ? 1. Level 1, 2 or 3? I thought 1.
And internal training including induction? Well we do loads of that with volunteers. 70%? Yes about that. It was beginning to sound quite impressive.
Is the IT you use state of the art, 1 to 5? Um (we do replace old PCs, and use open source software, and then there's our own reception database - and it's usually safe to be 2 or 3), 3.
Are your services compared to other equivalent bodies worldwide (worldwide??!) leading the way 1 to 5? Er 3 (as we are not typical anyway, being Christian, and the bond scheme is pretty good. Am I exaggerating?).

A few more checks and he was done. Did I mind follow on calls about costs? Er no. Gone.
Now where was I?

Thinking About Promoting Services

2011-06-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'll blog about promoting services, as it will help me to gather my thoughts.

We offer a range of services at the Jesus Centre, and we need to let the people know who are out there wanting to find them.
How has it worked so far?

The Bridge drop-in has never needed promoting after the initial notifying of agencies, because the word on the street, literally, has done very well ever since.

Word of mouth is (WOM) still very effective in the electronic and social media age.

The same goes for other services that drop-in folk use, like Your Space activities, food parcels, public computer use, and the bond scheme. Habit Breaker taps into the drop-in clientele (though we have had internet enquiries).

Little Ark mums & tots on Fridays gathered quite a few mums via the library website, but that draws less now, for some reason. It may have been WOM mainly in fact.
Services that are used by anumber of our own church members and friends are easy to promote, like Young At Heart over 50's lunch club, and Your Story friendship group.

Your Future (short courses) has a long history now, and experience at promotion.Iain, the leader, sends out posters and info to agencies, and we put free info on Gumtree.com and Google maps. It is featured, along with all the services on the website www.covjc.co.uk, and the main Jesus Centre site at Jesus.org.uk. These all produce enquiries. The same goes for Re-Cycle bike repairs, as people are searching online for just that. Google Adwords also catch internet searchers.

I haven't mentioned leaflets.We gave up on individual service leaflets that sit in reception and get scattered by children, in favour of a generic What's On leaflet that we give to new visitors, and display. A big board in reception also lists what is on, and a copy is on the notice board outside.

Your Learning for basic skills was added last year. Julia took info to lots of agencies and has a steady flow of students from that, and good old WOM.

I just got some figures from our database for new visitors this year excluding the Bridge - 216 with 73 at reception, 41 to Your Learning, 29 to Your Space (those would be non-Bridge), 23 to Mums & Tots,11 to support workers...

We probably still need some more effective strands of promotion. I may tell you when I find them, but meanwhile we have enough to be going on with.

There We Go

2011-06-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

I led the Bridge drop-in team yesterday and thought I would tell a few stories.

A woman was going through divorce, staying here and there, and her mother has cancer.She was philosophical about it, but clearly finding life tough, and appreciated any interest.

My Polish friend is still homeless, but thankfully he can now apply for benefits, since Eastern Europeans have recently been granted that right (I believe the UK was forced to relently European law).

It was too late for his Latvian friend who died last week in hospital of liver failure. I was saddened to hear that, having given him bedding often, and helped him along some streets a few weeks ago, because he was injured by a car and struggling with crutches. He had been on the streets for years since coming to the UK. A gentle grateful man.

Back to my Polish friend. The day before he was drunk (he sleeps under a bridge, had no income, no job) and climbed on top of a building to jump off. An Italian man restrained him, and now he was shocked at how close he got.

A couple of working girls were comparing notes - we know them from our beat outreach.

A woman asked for some food to take away, as she puts up an Asian friend with serious mental health problems; he was there, and had stayed out last night. He was in some accommodation before but lost it.

A couple of guys were talking about H's funeral coming up. One said the killers used to be his mates; it was all over £20 worth of heroin. Life can be cheap.

One guy and his cousin said they were off to Devon on Monday to get work. Another told me he aims to do a course of treatment for Hep C, then rehab, and then move back to Spain where he lived before. He is tired of a grotty flat and no aims; there he can look for his children and get a job. I hope he manages all that.

Then there was the man who was sleeping under a hedge some time back and it was set on fire, so he has serious burns on his body and an infection inside that causes swelling of his belly and it has to be drained regularly at the hospital. He was cheerful and looking better for getting off the streets into a hostel, though overdue for a drain.

There you are.64 in all I think, with as many more tales. A young volunteer told his story of becoming a Christian to a roomful and it went down well. I hope we did them some good. There but for the grace of God go you or I.

Put A Sock In It

2011-06-06T04:41:00.000-07:00

HJ Hall in Hinckley gave us over 25,000 pairs of socks over the years. They have manufactured socks for generations and gave us seconds, which were still sound socks. Many thanks to them, and I hope they get through the hard times that hit them when they lost a big contract.

We gave socks out to the homeless and poor in the Bridge drop-in, and we passed some on to other Jesus Centres. I admit to wearing some myself - I put a small donation in for them - when I'm not in sandals.

Now they have all gone, and we are ringing around lots of businesses to see who else can spare us a few thousand (or dozen) pairs of socks.

All contributions gladly received.

Sock it to us, as they say.

Spiritual Or What

2011-06-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

When I arrived this morning the kitchen supervisor had cut his hand quite badly by some carelessness: did an accident report, discussion about how to reduce risk etc.
Later on he was involved in some stress about other volunteers which Simon (team leader) sorted out.

At the same time a visitor was implicated in stealing a coat, and a man who uses the car park, and has been aggressive, came in. Simon dealt with said Mr Parker, who was threatening and arrogant - Simon used the radio to call the police and it blew over. But Simon was left a bit shaken by the upsurge of grief all at once.

A bit later I was at reception and a normally placid visitor was getting uptight about not getting a coffee, because he was too late. I thought, it's one of those days when there's a lot of flak about.

Trouble comes in threes, they say. Everyone has bad days, problem customers etc. So why infer anything spiritual? Well everything is spiritual, as someone said, and I agree. This is a Jesus Centre, after all.

Allsorts and Anesis

2011-05-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

We get to deal with all sorts of things.

A member of a church that hires our room has an anger problem, and we had to bar him from parking here after several incidents when he got nasty with our folk.

A bond scheme tenant died of a heart attack last week, in his 50's.

A local newspaper article referred to a Jesus Army Hostel. There is no such thing, and I wrote and told them.

The tv program, Secret Millionaire, was about Anesis, with Kervin Julien helping the homeless in Cov (I went to see him recently). He's a real enthusiast. See anesis.org.uk with this good picture of a friend of ours:

CJC is featuring regularly on Radio Plus (101.5, Coventry only) in Rob Halligan's Wednesday night program 7-9pm. Well he does work here.

We mailed out our 2010 Annual Review to 750 addresses, with a Well Cafe flyer (the name is changing from The Upper Well). The extension is still a hole in the ground outside, but there is progress!

We started as a distribution point for Food Bank parcels today (Tues). Stock is in the shed, scales are ready, paperwork, volunteers...

Julia issued a bunch of certificates to her English group. We are working on equipping her classroom better.

Only 57

2011-05-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

In the Bridge this (Saturday) morning.
A good team, prayer and a song before. 57 visitors, which is quite low, and a peaceful time.
The drinkers were dry, and the weather - both helped.

I gave someone his ban and he moaned but did not swear at me, which is progress for him.

I talked to a guy who slept under a hedge once (possibly drunk) and it was set on fire, and he has awful burns on his back. He is still sleeping rough.

An African guy was on something and fell asleep - a pity as he is a Christian.

A helper introduced two lads from his hostel, interested in church and getting their lives sorted.

I got a volunteer, Sheka, to tell everyone about how he became a Christian in Sierra Leone from being a moslem. He quoted the Koran and the bible, and people listened well.

I invited all to have a progress interview and one man booked one at once. He had a flat but had started drinking again and lost it.He's always been a pleasant chap.

Another African said his phone was broken, a major problem when you live in hostels. He is waiting for the Home Office to let him stay, having been here 11 years.

A Czech, a Portuguese pair, Asians and Africans, a Pole, Scots, Irish, the lot. God bless them all. (The picture is from a couple of years ago.)

Debrief, laundry, cleaning, writing up notes, turning things off and locking up. Sorted.

Your Higher Heap - What The Dickens

2011-05-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Do you have a paper heap on your desk? I do, and it is a barometer of my work life.

If it is shrinking, I feel in control and all is well with the world - well almost. If it is growing, and that usually means it is also getting messier, then it feels like climbing up a scree slope each day.

I suppose the main factors affecting this tidal pattern are days swallowed up by special events, bank holidays, or sickness (thankfully very rare) and leave (too rare). When they intrude, the week's work is concertina'ed, while the inflow stays pretty constant. Daily interruption flow (should be DIF, and have a coefficient) also plays to heap status.
The other factor is Major Tasks with deadlines, which demand special attention and relegate everything else to second place, or the heap. I like concentrating on one thing and getting it done, but afterwards it's back to the stubborn heap.

Have you ever turned your heap upside down to tackle the stuff that seems to stay as bottom sediment for months? How often do you actually clear the whole heap? I think I may have done it twice in nine years at CJC.

Don't tell me. Of course I prioritise, have a list, bin old papers that will not be missed, take time out to just read those magazines, delegate, use technology, put the phone on DND, tackle the items I want to avoid - all that sensible stuff.

But the heap survives, and I suspect that it will be there until the day I change jobs, and start another one.

Jesus Army Jesus Centre - Fine By Me

2011-05-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

'Go down to the Jesus Army'.
That's what a working girl's mum urged her in Coventry, to find help with addictions and change her lifestyle.

However much we refer to the Jesus Centre, most people still call it 'the Jesus Army'.

Maybe it echoes Salvation Army, which is fine - we are on the same side.
Maybe it is just that we are well known in town as the JA.
As long as the name of Jesus is linked to help and love and integrity, and us, fine.

We are here to give Jesus a good reputation, and not earn the accusation of 'hypocrites' etc. To date, since soon after 2000, Jesus Centres in Northampton, Coventry and London have been doing that, and soon Sheffield and Birmingham should add their work.
Bring it on Jesus Army.

You're A Progress Star

2011-05-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

We are starting something new that could be quite significant.

Years ago we trained someone up to offer mentoring to our visitors; we set up various forms and systems. But hardly anyone came.

We (I actually) created an outcomes star tailored to CJC, and even made an interactive version on a spreadsheet using macros - at the very limits of my technical skills. The support workers still use that. Visitors score themselves in 9 scales of life progress, including Physical and Mental Health, Life Skills, Accommodation etc (the pic is of someone else's version). At the end it produces a star chart that gives a clear visual picture of their weak and string areas. used repeatedly it shows progress, or lack of it, graphically. I have known people to see it and say 'That helps me see what I need to work on'. Exactly.

Another strand of this progress thing is letting people know what is available both at CJC and elsewhere, that may help them. We have rung the changes with leaflets listing our services, but we seem to have settled on a colourful one that uses clip art pictures to show what's on offer. For outside agencies and services we set up our own agency database years ago, and that makes it easy to match needs with services.

These days in the voluntary sector the emphasis is increasingly on people making progress, and not just being helped to tread water. That isn't really new - we have aimed at progress all along, but I suppose with the emphasis on value for money always growing, it applies a pressure to deliver outcomes.
So we have come up with the idea of offering Progress Interviews to people. They will include information about our services ('What's On' leaflet), and about other agencies (Agency Database), and a Progress Star assessment, all in a mentoring-type format. Repeat interviews will show ground covered against declared aims, and as one sage said, people are not motivated by targets - they are motivated by progress.

This week we are starting real Progress Interviews. We have trained some volunteers to give the interviews at times they can be here. Now we are starting to invite visitors to make an appointment.
It is work in progress because it means finding the best way to get service leaders to offer this to new people and to anyone that it may help - could be everyone in fact. And that means admin. Do we just throw forms at service leaders ('groan, more forms!'), or attach them to the New Visitor forms, or choose people for them as personal invitations to issue? One of our administrators is chewing on that one, and meanwhile we have got a couple of appointments set up, so the interviewers will soon be doing it for real.

So that's progress.

The Jesus Centre franchise at work

2011-04-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

We have three three Jesus Centres running, in Northampton, London and Coventry. The new Sheffield JC is due to open this summer, and Birmingham may have one in 2012 at the present rate, with a possible building in view. They all operate with the same charitable aims and policies, comparable systems and a very similar ethos and spirit.

I have just knocked up some charts showing comparative statistics for the three so far.
Considering how different the towns are, the buildings, and even to some extent the services, there are strong similarities in results.

The total number of visits to each centre varies around 2000 per lunar (4-week) month, or 500 a week.
All three drop-ins have around 250 visits per week.
London JC cafe has about 200 customers a week, Northampton JC has 150 a week (Coventry JC cafe is being re-vamped, having barely registered on the stats at all).
The balance of visits to all other services is again very similar for the three, with 200 per week.

The number of new people coming in ranges from 50 to 120 per week.
The 500 visits a week are made by about 230 different people typically.
The number of active services is around 25 at each Centre.

We log the things that we do for people (outputs) and these range from 600 to 900 per week.

We also capture progress made by visitors as a result of what we do to help them (outcomes). This is a combination of what we see and what they tell us. All three centres log around 100 outcomes per LM, or more precisely, 20 to 40 per week.

So a typical Jesus Centre will have over 200 different people come in each week, many coming more than once. Of those a quarter or half are new. They will receive a range of help and in 30 or 40 cases of real progress in life will be made that week.

There are many ways to measure how Jesus Centres are doing - financial balances, reputation, strength of staff and volunteer teams, spiritual atmosphere... But if people are being helped to make real progress in their lives, that has to be good.

Things that work

2011-04-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

I like things that work; I've probably said it before. Such as the picture above.

I went to see someone at another agency that I had heard about a few times. He seemed to have a negative view of our work by most accounts. In fact we got on well and both came away happier. It worked.

A man from probation came about a young man we know doing some community service at CJC, which was fine. He also said that probation could well send a group of young men to work on our allotment. A good spin off that could really work.

Ann told me a bit more about her lobbying of bodies about ESA and Housing Benefit changes, both of which are hitting people hard, even causing needless deaths. She gets listened to; it works.
But her email filing doesn't work, so I must see if I can help.

Our fundraising duo got us a lot of shirts and shoes free from Next, and our church young people are running a challenge to make more money from £10 each given to over 30 of them; it's working (and so are they).

Re-Cycle bike repair project works, with Harold now helping Ron in the yard, and bikes come in, get fixed and go out. The allotment is getting dug over and planted by Harbans and others who join him (and maybe guys on probation). Now that's work.

Salome does well on reception - a council funded placement for 6 months. She is starting an NVQ, and has grown in confidence already.

Our newly upgraded database of visitor for service stats (called Jed, for Jesus cEntre Database) works well, and we are getting a lot of good information out of it. It is being rolled out to the other Jesus Centres now.

The 2010 Annual review is just out, and looking good. It will be mailed out to many soon. It is also a valuable fundraising tool.

Building work has started on our new cafe extension, after various delays. Negotiations worked, and we hope the building, internal set up and promotion work too. Our admin man Rob is starting a program on the local 'Radio Plus', that will feature CJC and the cafe, so that should help.

We hope that distributing food parcels as part of the Food Bank system works well when we start it next month.

Of course not everything does work well. We are short of volunteers in some sections, we can't run a parenting group for lack of a leader, some services get low uptake, money is always hard work to raise, and the bank annoyed me this week by its poor service... But at least I'm not the only one frustrated by banks.

On the whole, by the grace of God, a lot is working, so I'm happy enough.

That theme again

2011-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

I met him in the Bridge drop-in on Thursday. I liked him at once and listened to his story.

He had been part of our church a decade ago and then left. He had been in a stable relationship for five years, but his partner got cancer. She had surgery and her 6 month old baby died; then she died.

He found himself in London with all he owned on his back, but then he was mugged and lost even that, i.d. and all.
So he crawled under a shelter to die, he thought.

On the second day a voice inside him said 'Get up'. He got up and walked. That took him to a Salvation Army centre and there a man helped him. He

took him to a station and said he would buy a ticket to wherever. That led to Coventry six weeks ago.

He did not seem bitter. In fact he thought he was a humbler man as a result of that nightmare.

God does not rig life on earth, the dice are not fixed, even for Christians. Bad stuff, misfortune happen to all. It is the setting in which we show what we are made of.

When asked about the tower of Siloam that fell on 18 people and killed them, Jesus said they were not worse than anyone else, but we all need to get our hearts right in case the same happens to us.

In other words, life is a test of the heart, so don't get caught out with a hard heart.

Clever Jed

2011-04-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

Jed 2a is live after a successful drop. Now outputs and outcomes reporting is on stream, tiled service screens, message prompts, and other delights. And what's more, Jed can now be loaded by other Jesus Centres, enabling easier stats handling and better comparative reporting.

To Translate: Jed means Jesus cEntre Database, and version 2a is the latest version uploaded for use in reception etc. Outputs are what we do for visitors, such as laundry, or literacy training; outcomes are progress made by visitors as a result. Jed records against services, visitors and our five charitable aims.

We need to tell everyone 'this is what we aimed to do to help people, this is what we did and this is how much they were helped', and Jed makes that easier to do.

A receptionist can have four different services on screen at once with tiling, to enter visitors as they arrive for each one. If a visitor has a message waiting, Jed shows them. Clever Jed (sounds like a character from a western).

And yes, when each JC is using the same program and churning out figures, it will be simple to draw pretty graphs showing all the Centres together for comparison.
That helps the trustees and managers to see trends and so to make strategic decisions.

When Joe Public gives his name in at reception to get a breakfast or join an art group, Jed logs him and the way the centre runs can be steered from such information. It started with just writing lists of names and now the database helps take us further. Sorted.

Ten Years After

2011-03-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

The vision pre-millennium was for Jesus Army Centres open to all, especially the poor, to make Christian charity, literally, accessible through the week.

That was articulated via the Jesus Army Charitable Trust in five formal aims: Meeting needs, building capacity, promoting Christian faith, fostering social benefit, and a combination of benefiting our volunteers, working with local agencies, and generally being efficient and effective.
These were filled out in our statement for the Charity Commission.

We would set up and run services, such as drop-ins for the homeless and disadvantaged, cafes, skills classes, support groups for ex-offenders, introductory groups for those checking out Christianity, and anything that fit the aims, and that we had people and means to run.

So I ask you, how long should it take to get all that going effectively, and deliver outcomes against all the aims, so that we can say 'People are making real progress as a result of our work at the Jesus Centre'?
Perhaps a couple of years to get through teething troubles, learn from experience, hone our policies and systems, get management on the ball..?

I don't actually know how long it should take, but it looks like taking us ten years.

Gaining confidence at first took a few years. Accumulating the right staff and service leaders was a long uphill pull, and is still going on. Working out systems and best practice (or better anyway) was a strenuous trial and error process. Things that work have endured, while other ventures fizzled out, and gradually we have accumulated a range of services and approaches that do work reasonably well.
It is a never ending process, but it looks like, ten years after we tentatively and naively set out, we shall be nearer the real beginning of what we aimed at.

A Lot of Pain Out There

2011-03-18T02:38:00.000-07:00

A busy night on the beat. B_ was new to us, well spoken, young. D_, who we had not seen for years, waved us away as she so often used to do - other times she was affectionate and told tales of being on tv.

A_ had just had septicaemia and had to be operated on to cut away the flesh; it had been a wake up call to 'get out of this'. She said things were looking up and we prayed with her - pretty desperate really. S1_ gave her contact details of an agency. E_ asked about our bond scheme.

K_ had just had a baby; she had started in someone's house and walked across the road with the baby emerging until somone got an ambulance and she had it on the way to hospital. We prayed with her - she has left her moslem husband.

M_ was hyper as usual, looking her 40+ years, and had prayer. S2_ was on her way home, just came out to do one - but we saw her a while later still walking. V_ was on her usual stretch, had a quick drink, pleasant as ever.

S1_ looked grim and reluctant at first (K_ told us her partner had got sent down) but then asked for a lift, which we said would cost her a prayer - she agreed, and when we stopped she reached out both handsot be held and said 'And on my head' as she bowed it. She thanked us for prayers and said 'Drive safely' as she left. Had she any aims? Don't ask me that, I just get through each day' she answered. Crack is a cruel master, and her mum says she is edgy and irritable if she goes home without it.

S3_ was upset about her 21-year old son who had just been knocked off his bike by a driver on a mobile, and thrown into oncoming traffic. His football days are over with bolts in his hips. She asked us to pray for him. Previously she had been wildly angry at everyone after her sister hung herself. There's a lot of pain out there.

Part Set A

2011-03-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

We hire out rooms at the Jesus Centre to make some revenue.
This means letting hirers in and out, and enabling them to come and go without compromising the building's security.

One way is to lock the front door and let them use a fire door to let each other in. This is reasonably secure.
Another way is to give them a key and ask them to keep the front door locked, at least when they go. There is always a small risk of someone getting in to steal or do damage. It has happened on rare occasions.

So we came up with Part Set A.
That means we got the alarm system programmed to enable us to set only the part of the system that covers the office where money and documents are (Zone A), and the upstairs offices.
That worked well enough, except for when someone came in later and went in to an office forgetting about the part set. Clang clang.

So we agreed to stick signs on the relevant doors saying Alarm Alarmed (sic) when we part set. Those were sometimes overlooked (clang), or not put up (clang). The alarm monitoring firm started to complain.

The next idea was a switch by the alarm keypad to flip over when Part Setting A (or Part Set A'ing), and some electronic widgets in carefully set locations that show flashing red lights.

But before doing that we decided to try dangling the Alarm Alarmed signs over the doors at eye level (and above the reach of hirers' curious children). When Part Setting A (or Parting Set A) one would unhook the dangler and let it dangle. If that fails, it's the widget.
If that fails too, then we shall have been defeated by our own inability to manage our own fallibility.
That must echo something bigger in the human condition.

Not Boring

2011-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

It shows that I'm a manager, because I found a meeting where we made a lot of decisions quite satisfying.

Among other things, we dealt with:

an angle on use of the reception database
how to assess a new food parcel scheme in town
what to include in the next volunteer event
how to enable someone to build a database without upsetting our IT coordinator
how to make training work better with video
how to discipline someone for petty theft
how to gather orders for a new CJC T-shirt
and how to move a couple of new services along

We usually pray about our work together, and that helps a lot.

It may sound boring to you, but it floated my boat.

Survivors

2011-02-26T05:04:00.000-08:00

Last night Survivors met in Coventry. It is a support group for those bereaved by suicide. All bereavement is devastating, but this one has its own added complexity and pain.

We each talked about our experience - a mother who injected herself with insulin, causing brain damage and a delayed death from pneumonia; a brother who hung himself in hospital whilst on suicide watch; an uncle who thought that the people who were threatening those close to him would be helped by his death, and he fell 15 floors; a husband with acute mental illness for ten years who finally overdosed; a friend with acute depression, but a mother of a young family, who could take it no longer and lay down on a railway line; a young dad who was heartbroken by splitting up from his partner and could not cope with life, told his 13-year old son that he would be gone in a week, and hung himself; and a sister with schizophrenia who ran out of a hospital into the path of a van.

It was inevitably quite hard to take all that in, but we all knew that talking about it was essential to finding some sort of peace about it.

One had found God dramatically afterwards, another wrote letters to her brother, which helped. One had run the course of emotions and found a new life, but still had echoes. One told her story for the first time ever - a big step forward. It helps to hear others' stories, as well as tell your own.

Let me mention more about the young man (28) whose dad hung himself. Family life had been full of abuse and violence, and when dad left him so abruptly, he took to drugs, drink, violence and crime (with jail). We had to ban him long term from the Jesus Centre because he was so volatile. I had heard his story and felt that he was reachable, some day.
More recently he was attacked by a group with a hammer and badly hurt. That made him realise how hopeless a life of violence was. He also had some help with parenting his young child - more cause for thought.

There is a reason for everyone's behaviour. They need to be able to see it for themselves, and he is doing that now.
So there he was, opening up, agreeing with a prayer at the end, making his way forward as a real survivor.

She's A Star

2011-02-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

“The Jesus Centre has helped me tremendously with accommodation and alcohol problems. I can talk to a support worker if I need to. They have also helped me move and given me furniture. I have been given food parcels and clothing when I have needed them. I regularly go to Your Space to meet people and play board games. I am much happier now.” (Susan)

Susan was referred to the Bond Scheme by another agency in the City in October 2008. She had just been released from prison and was living in temporary accommodation. We housed her in a tiny studio flat but she has now moved on to a one bedroom flat still under the scheme. Her alcohol consumption has reduced greatly.

This is an entry in our 2010 annual review that I am working on now. Susan confirmed that she is very happy with it, and I took the pictures today.

She is a star bond scheme tenant (which I told her), having recently paid off all of her bond, which means that she now has a bond ready for any future property she wants to move to.
We're proud of her.

De-Side

2011-02-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

We discussed the idea of giving our volunteers Coventry Jesus Centre T shirts, like Sheffield did for theirs.

Did we want to at all? I was not too keen. Did we want to ask the volunteers what they wanted? That was resisted. Should we dish them out at a special event that is coming up? I demurred again.

We didn't agree. It was ping pong between strength of feeling versus truculent resistance, and bits of half baked reasoning.

I appealed to the third party for arbitration, but that didn't work. They just added to the factors on the table that didn't make a coherent case either way.

After getting narked at the the sense that I was being railroaded into the other's view, I managed to pronounce that we could not make a decision yet, and I would do a little investigating and we could chew on it. The tension subsided and at least I had made one useful decision.

That's it – first decide if you can make a decision at all. If not, decide to postpone it to allow more homework.

God help us to make decisions that are not hijacked by our own, often mixed, motives. 'In many counsellors there lacketh not wisdom', it sayeth, and we also need the wisdom to coordinate the counsellors.

Room Service

2011-02-02T04:06:00.000-08:00

Our rooms are highly multi-use. I have tallied up ten rooms or spaces that all have multiple users.

For instance, the Gateway Hall takes turns at being a venue for several different churches in the week, including our own. It also provides an activities space, a mums & tots safe space, a CJC service group venue, a food parcel packing room, an interview space, and occasionally also a banqueting hall, conference and seminar room, a fitness gym, a concert hall, and an exhibition arena. Not yet a swimming pool though.

All this requires movement of stacks of chairs, tables and whatever kit the event uses, such as big toys for tots, pool and table tennis tables for activities, gym equipment for exercise.
Plus constant vacuuming, emptying bins and collecting the steady flow of lost property.

My point is just that our small Jesus Centre, which is rather like the Tardis in seeming bigger inside than out, generates a lot of work because it is small. Each room is certainly delivering value compared to a building where rooms lie empty much of the week, but the cost is a human one.
On the plus side of that is the involvement of helpers in sorting rooms out through the week.

Future Jesus Centres and the like, take note.

Mogadishu Today

2011-01-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

'I am a Berber from south Morocco. The majority in the country are Arabs, then there are Berbers, and then Jews. They escaped from Europe and now a lot of Jews in Israel are from Morocco. My parents went to Mauritania, and I went through Spain to the UK. I have been asked for passport photos, so I expect to get leave to remain soon.'

'I am from eastern Congo, DRC, near Rwanda, Uganda etc. I used to sell coltan; yes the area was controlled by rebels. My parents were killed in the war. My brother got away to Kinshasa. I have been there. It is 2000km and took two hours to fly there. I got out through Uganda.'

'I was in Mogadishu, Somalia. It used to be an ancient city that people from many nations came to. Now it is in ruins, and no one knows why people are fighting. There are so many weapons. It is not ethnically mixed, and the south is fertile. I would like to go back some day, if there is peace.'

'I did ten years in the army and was in Bosnia. A lot of moslems were killed there. I was also in Germany and they were digging up some cobbles near Bergen Belsen, and they found thousands of bones; it was disgusting. I was on the streets but the British Legion are going to get me somewhere to live.'

You can learn a lot of history, geography and sociology in the Bridge drop-in. That was part of my lesson this morning.

Oh and anatomy. One guy said he had fallen asleep by a gas fire and burned his head. He had a tennis ball-sized area of shiny brown bone, ringed by pink skin then cropped hair. He tapped the bone and said 'It's my skull. I'm waiting for a skin graft.' It seemed more like Mogadishu than Coventry.

42

2011-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

There was a man sitting behind the Jesus Centre this morning as I approached. I recognised him from the Bridge.

He waved me over and asked for help. ' I am depressed', he said. 'I don't know what to do with my life. I take medication but it numbs my feelings. I was a child soldier in Somalia at 15. They told us the government soldiers were coming to kill us all and gave us two weeks training and sent us off with guns.'

I asked him about his family. His parents were dead, broken by the fighting, and his marriage had broken up. He had permission to stay in the UK, but at 42 felt hopeless, and was drinking. I encouraged him to apply for accommodation through our bond scheme.

I asked if he was a moslem and he said he was brought up moslem but believed anything. So I offered to pray for him and he gratefully let me pray for him then.

He needs a place to live, work, friends, faith and purpose. He needs mending.

Friday Mix

2011-01-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

Friday morning, sleet outside but a hive of activity in the Jesus Centre.

Toilets being cleaned, two guys are on the public computers, a third is about to trim his own hair with our clippers.

Mums and tots are in the hall, in full swing, and a cookery class is busy in the Bridge. The class is the start of a new six-week series, and there is a good intake. I left Iain (leading it) taking some photos so I'll load one up here - that's Gina, enjoying herself.

Later on the cafe will be open, Your Space activities will fill the hall, Ron will be fixing bikes in the yard (Re-Cycle) and Rune will be leading Your Art in the Bridge. Dee is on reception, probably giving out some food parcels. Tony and Val are on duty as Support Workers, and I'm up here knocking up a quick blog.

That's Lizi with her little girl in Mums & Tots.

RHM

2011-01-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of housekeeping to do in the Jesus Centre, from filling things up like loo rolls or soap dispensers, to cleaning to shifting furniture round to doing laundry, sweeping the yard... The list is long. And one step back or above this is managing the helpers and volunteers who want to know what they can do. All this comes under the Facilities Manager, and it can take quite a bit of time and energy to cover.

So we envisaged having a senior volunteer who could take all this on and really assist. They would need to be capable enough to do it, but not available for employment which would take them away again.

We prayed, because we run the Centre by faith as well as graft.

Well today I was instructing RHM, and he did really well. He and his team of helpers ate up my list of tasks, and his ability to manage it all was excellent. He is a carer for his wife, who helped out as well, so he should be available for some time. Amen.

P.S. It means Right Hand Man, not a flour company.

Scooping fish

2010-12-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

Meetings, who needs them?

Actually today I have had two that felt very worthwhile - yes felt; cut me and my wires bleed.

And actually they were both one to one supervision sessions, so not full on meetings, but I think the magic ingredient still applied.
Which is creative synergy. Ooh I pulled in that word as I typed, meaning working together.
As you discuss something a possible way forward drops out, and you go 'Ah, that's a new idea which might just work!' I like things that work.

For instance today we filled in an idea about our annual volunteer training plan. Of late we have run one big training day to hit a lot of volunteers with a lot of training, and made it as pleasant and efficient as we can. We have honed it pretty well, but with one hit we miss those who don't make it (duh), and inevitably it's a lot to take in.

So the big idea is to spread it across four dates and try morning, afternoon, evening, Friday , Saturday and Monday slots. Choice, variety - how PC is that?

Anyway, other big ideas also surfaced like exciting fish to be scooped out and carried home - things that might just move our work forward significantly. OK some will fizzle, but it's nice to have new ideas to follow up.

It also felt like the staff involved had things to get stuck into to make their jobs effective as well as more do-able.

As they say, progress motivates people more than targets.

Taking Stock

2010-12-17T08:27:00.000-08:00

It was our annual meeting of Jesus Centre managers, plus a couple of trustees, to assess progress and prepare the annual return to the Charity Commission. We have Northampton, London and Coventry Jesus Centres all pressing on, and Sheffield JC represented, as it is due to open in 2011.

Our chairman aired the issue of how we can coordinate various bits of admin, including statistics recording, volunteer systems, and fund-raising, so we avoid reinventing lots of wheels. We seem to need 'someone to do it', but can only monitor it for now.

Next we noted our main successes for 2010, and any disappointments. It is always interesting to pick up what other Centres are doing that works well.

Succession planning - ah, I declare an interest, being 59, and I do have a possible young successor in mind. No one shot that down, but how long is what I want to know.

We rumble on, reporting on progress against objectives. Some problems seem to take ages to crack, usually to do with staff quality and good strategy. I wonder how long this stuff will take when we have two more Centres running. It is always useful to stand back and see where we are, what we've achieved or not, and what we should aim at next.

Lunch break.

A bit crunchier next, as we reported on tackling stated obstacles. It's really about whether we kept our eyes on the various balls, so there was some um'ing and er'ing and scratching around for coherent answers. You win some you lose some?

What do we want to do next year? The Charity Commission want o know about things that wil affect service users - fair enough - so we worked on those, rather than what will make staff less frazzled, or get the admin done, etc, important as they are. It focuses thinking and makes us consider strategy. Some creaking here, but lists were drafted. Those not in the spotlight found different ways to stay with it in neutral, such as scribbling a blog, leaning back with eyes shut, or poking at a mobile.

My turn again, and we teased out obstacles and mitigations for four objectives, with some confusion between these en route - are you surprised?

It seemed like brain ache but again it will be helpful to keep tackling these key items as the year rolls on. In our case it's being strategic about service development (expand skills classes, for instance), and getting funds for that; being sustainable in human terms; making more volunteers from visitors, and being smart about covering them; and getting the cafe extension built, staffed and full of customers, despite our poor location. Do that lot and it'll be a good year.
Funding, human resources, what services to run and how, admin capacity - with such things we wrestle. Perhaps surprisingly we managed quite a few laughs in this long process. It does help.

We reached Sheffield JC, with its uncertainties and the gee'ing up of all concerned to hit the ground running.

We went full circle in the end, back to how to coordinate JC admin and development. Our set-up, with centrally defined values and policies, works well, but centres inventing their own systems raises the need of someone to coordinate them, to facilitate best practice. I offered to find out more about the various systems concerned and report back, which was agreed.

Time up, a few last minute points made, then a prayer - about faith for it all, about men and women finding help and home through the Centres, giving thanks for what we have, for SJC's birth pangs as it takes it s place, and for BJC as big decisions are made.

Amen.

Do I hear violins?

2010-12-17T01:19:00.000-08:00

Why do I get a headache by lunch time? Why did Simon get a sudden migraine? Why do other staff get quite a few ailments?

Well it's darkest December, cold s.a.d. season. But it was also a hectic autumn, and frankly there is a price attached to Jesus Centre work. It's easy to get 'peopled out', and the number of unplanned demands was pretty high of late. Do I hear violins?

There is always more we can do to manage the demands and increase sustainability, but there is also a spiritual struggle, and sometimes it is still a headache. Am I bothered? Of course, especially if it's my head, but we pray, plan, press on and praise God.

Update - Off His Trolley

2010-12-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

The manager of St Martins Info centre in the Bull Ring, Birmingham, came over and met Barney and Piers. It was very constructive, especially with BJC on the horizon.

Young At Heart older persons' lunch club had a big turn out this Monday for the last session of the year. Back in January.

Your Future kicks off again on January 7th with a cookery course through to February 25th when there is a Healthy Walk (to walk off the food?).

Your Art is off after this Friday 17th, while Rune goes to Sweden, affecting December 24th and 31st. Back again for January 7th.

Habit Breaker is having another good series, helping people with addictions by spiritual means. Contact Andy or Rune for info.

Re-Cycle has bikes for sale, and needs more to fix and sell. Contact reception.

Bible Life starts soon, alternating with Your Life on Thursdays. It's a bible study to be led by Tschaka.

We have a new Allotment chief, Tony, who is keen to look after it. If you want to help, contact reception.

Answers to Prayer
Simon said 'One time I wanted a little trolley, prayed, and got just what I wanted out of the blue. I also wanted a small tv to replace the huge one here, and it happened immediately'

Wet Footprints

2010-12-10T02:19:00.001-08:00

A guy came in this morning. I noticed him as new in the drop-in this week.

He came out of the army two years ago and has been on the streets since then. He did a short prison sentence but is hopeful of the British Legion helping him to get a place soon.

He slept in a block of flats last night, presumably a stair well or landing, and his shoes had been stolen. He left a trail of wet sock footprints across the foyer. He asked if we had any shoes, and something to dry his feet with. Fortunately we had some shoes his size, plus clean socks, and he gratefully put them on, declining some donated chocolates ('I don't eat chocolate'). He had a loaf of bread and a cup of coffee, and went his way.

He was quiet spoken, polite, and grateful for our little help.

Beautiful People

2010-12-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

This made me laugh out loud in the Bridge.

Steve told me about when he went to a shoe shop to complain about his purchase.
They told him he did not buy them there but he insisted, and made such a fuss that he was arrested. The police tore his suit in the episode and he had to sit in a police car for four hours.

At some stage he rang his mum who told him that she bought those shoes for him!

The police officer with him said he would have to give him a caution, which was the only trouble he has ever been in with the law. The officer called him a prat, and Steve said that it was an incident that made him realise that he had mental health issues.

Humbling I'd say.

That was this morning.

I also enjoyed listening to a guy who injured his hand years ago and is trying to get suitable work; a Hungarian man with MS who said he used to get depressed but it's no good so he does not go there now; a man who's wife died recently - he wept as I prayed with him; a man who is on the streets because someone kicked his door in and the police advised him to become scarce; a Latvian who came here very depressed and got real help, including the gift of a phone with credit from someone; a man who bears a lot of anger and paranoia, but who responded to our little preach very positively; and a man who has been coming on and off since 2002 and is pleasant company.
There were more, and the volunteers were grand too.

So many people do not complain about their lot. It's worth noting.

The Feelatinybitbetter Factor

2010-12-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

It's not rocket science, or Feng Shui, but I reckon that peoples' surroundings affect their mood. Wow! Really? You don't say.
Well I do actually.

We have just redecorated the Bridge drop-in. It was a cheerful yellow before, and it still is, but a bit more so, now that it's been re-done. We also cleaned the carpet.

I doubt if anyone will notice, consciously. But I bet that it will contribute towards them feeling a bit more positive about life. After all, if you're homeless or addicted or mentally poorly - or all three, or a destitute asylum seeker, you could have reason to feel down, and every little helps.

By the way, that's not a shot of the Bridge, but you get the idea.

Mean Streets

2010-12-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

Last night we went round the beat in Hillfields as usual, with hot drinks, chocloate muffins, and love.
We saw H who is several months pregnant, working. We've encouraged her to come to the Jesus Centre to get on to the bond scheme for a place to live. Otherwise it's not going to be a good start in life for her baby. It's not got a good run up either.

Then we met E. She wept on Ann's shoulder because she had an abortion the day before, at 5 weeks. We prayed with her, which she appreciated. Her partner just found out and was not happy. She seems to have been pushed into it by her mum, who now says 'get over it'. But E is hurting and wants someone to talk to.
Apart from contacting us, we told her to come and see our counsellor at the Centre. I hope she does; you don't get over that in a hurry.

Then we gave a lift to two girls to get away from S. One of them, K, had stayed with her and something went wrong. They told us that S's sister had just hung herself. We dropped them up the road and then saw S.
She said that K had stolen stuff from her when she left her place, so she was after her. She chilled out with us, got some condoms, and chatted a bit. Then she went off and we went home just before midnight.

Mean streets, as they say.

Quality of Life in Coventry

2010-11-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

I came across The Coventry Partnership 'Facts about Coventry' page http://www.facts-about-coventry.com/
and the statistics, mostly from 2008, make interesting reading.

To save you delving into them, here is a summary:

Population 2008 - 309,800
Average age 35.4 (England 39) - A relatively young population, possibly affected by having two universities
Birth rate increase over 5 years 22% (England 16%) - High; probably reflecting immigrant numbers
Ethnicity BME 25.9% (England 16.4%) - Mainly the long established Asian population, and lately Eastern Europeans
Economically active 74% (England 79%) - The city has reinvented its industries, but still has high unemployment
Obesity 28% (England 23.8%) - A sign of poverty
Death from coronary heart disease 28.4% (England 21.6%) - Another sign of poverty
Death from cancers under 65 yrs 72.9% (England 64.1%) - Another lifestyle indicator
Crimes per 1000 95 (England 86) - Poverty again
Teenage conception per 1000 U18 62.8 (England 40.4) - Frighteningly high; probably shows bad family quality
Homeless per 1000 households 4.3 (England 2.5) - We see this at the Jesus Centre; it seems that people come to Coventry for its homelessness facilities

Surprisingly, the data suggests a positive perception by locals of their city's amenities, police, and social relations. However, numbers not feeling safe are worse

The picture is of a city whose quality of economic and social life is poor (though race relations are good). There is civic pride and a council working hard to improve things, but the human cost of social problems is high. I suggest that the single biggest issue is the quality of family life. How can we help that?

Saturday Morning, Nothing Special

2010-11-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

Walk to the Centre, unlock, put the alarm code in. Let the two volunteers in who were waiting and through into the kitchen (three locked doors plus two pantry doors).

Take the phone off night service, turn on the cctv monitor, open the office cabinet and key box, get out post files for reception, the till cash tray, the day book, volunteer name badges and keys for the morning drop-in session.

Boot up the reception PC and open the right file. Take the post at the door and date stamp it. Sign on to the monitoring station with the retail radio. Turn on the hot water boiler, get tea and coffee tubs topped up.

Let in the other kitchen volunteer and check that they both know what to do (one is standing in for her husband). Check the laundry and relabel a bag securely.

Go upstairs (four locks) and get some socks and underwear to replenish with. Get my own badge from my office. Check the toilets downstairs. Check the drop-in toilets for paper towels and loo rolls, top one up. Open a couple of windows, the phone room and the little chapel.

Let the last volunteers in. Tell reception the names of some visitors waiting outside to get her ahead of the rush when we open up. Time for briefing - read the day book, guess how many will come in (60?), decide who is doing the showers, pray together. Make a drink, relax for a few minutes.

Open the front door and control entry until the rush is over. Say hello to as many as I can, and remember names too.

Three hours later, and 64 people, it had been a good session.

I had to tell one guy to go for being aggressive towards someone else (an old feud), and I told another off for making racist remarks - he left angrily saying 'You bastards!', so he will get a formal warning and two points. I told everyone that we don't allow racism and everyone is equally important. That went down well.

Otherwise we listened to lots of people, gave advice, made new acquaintances, sang Amazing Grace in the 'Jesus Time', cleared up and debriefed.
Thank everyone, sort a bit of laundry, receive some bread that someone bought as stocks are low, do a warning letter, lock doors and put stuff away, set alarm, go home to a late lunch.
Job done.

His Life

2010-11-13T06:35:00.000-08:00

I'll call him Bob.

I found myself listening to him in the drop-in this morning. An inconspicuous man with a neatly trimmed mustache and a soft northern accent. He has only been in a few times.

He told me that he got a place recently through the Homefinder system, after a long wait and two let-downs. He was told he had got a place and then they said he had the wrong benefits so did not qualify; that happened twice. But third time lucky, and he had a flat, and slept on the bare floor in a sleeping bag. Recently someone that he helped to move had given him his spare furniture. It does pay to help people.

His mum left home first. His dad was working and used to leave the little kids in the park before school. When his brother broke his arm on a slide they were put into care in Scarborough. He had been made to go to church every week, and the faith had stuck.

At 17 he was out in the world, and his foster family could not cope with him very well.
He did an apprenticeship on turning machines. He got married, had two children.

Then he was told about his real dad who was dying in London. He went down there, and what he remembered, and repeated to me, was seeing a piece of paper in his dad's flat with his own phone number on it. He said 'I don't know how he got it, but he never rang me'. That had evidently tipped him over an edge, along with his wife not understanding. They were divorced in 1984 and he had hit the drink and drugs, and done things that he was ashamed of. He said it took him two and a half years to get off them, but how 20 years were lost was not clear to me. He said he still holds back from people for fear of getting into the wrong company again that led to the addictions.

Now he wants to work, despite being 57, having depression and points from the medical board about his lack of fitness. Yes he had heard that some firms actively recruit older workers because they are reliable.

He thanked me for listening.
Well it's his life after all.

Errand

2010-11-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Jo leads a cell group called Restore at Westwood Church, Coventry. Her group did some sessions at the Jesus Centre reaching our visitors, and offered to help us more.
What we really needed was storage space for the avalanche of food donations from harvest festival offerings at local churches, and help with making them up into food parcels to give out to people in need at the Centre. Jo said ok.

So yesterday I checked with Jo, borrowed Barney's car, found our back shed keys (we have so many keys here), loaded as many trays of tins as I could, plus a wheel base courtesy of a supermarket that gives us food too. Through traffic queues to Canley and Jo's place. She had left the gate unlocked and I wheeled several loads of trays round to the shed and stacked them there. Then I brought out some trays of made-up food parcels and returned to base (filled up the car - brownie point), put them in the other shed, and took keys back to owners. Job done.

Checking our system for how many food parcels we have given out, it shows 13 today and 20 yesterday.

Thank you Jo and friends.

Wagging The Dogs

2010-10-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

I flicked back 8 weeks in my diary to the start of September. Bridge drop-in team leaders met that Sunday afternoon. The next Monday the management exec met in the evening. One of the three managers was away that week, and I worked on the Saturday morning too.

Since then life has been a stream of meetings for church and Jesus Centres in various locations, on top of the normal demands of Centre visitors and church members and issues.
We have had a local church evangelism campaign, a special Sunday morning meeting focusing on the Jesus Centre, an all day meeting about the coming Birmingham Jesus Centre, the quarterly round of management meetings and a Training Day that took a lot of preparation.

It is harvest festival season so we have been inundated with food from local schools and churches to make up into food parcels for those in need. Handling and storing them has added a lot to Simon's workload (he is facilities manager), while various things break down due to wear and tear. They can be fixed with parts or replacements, but our wear and tear is less simple to fix. Simon was off sick all last week, and my head has been close to popping.

Sometimes life just tails back and crowds in, and you just have to put your head down until the rush passes. But we do need to take control of some things too. We are farming out the food parcels to a local church, bless them. Training days are annual, so we can plan ahead to make that easier. Managers can work at being less at everyone's beck and call.

Our management committee, concerned about worn out managers, recommended closing for a week soon to catch up - fix things maybe, or just stop. It will take some planning, so that a limited service can be run, but it is good to stop the tail of life wagging the dogs.

Ripples and Means

2010-10-11T07:58:00.001-07:00

A 24 year old man died in a Coventry hospital last week. He was homeless and I can picture him clearly from the times he came in to the Jesus Centre for bits of help. A respectful young scallywag.

Young men die in Afghanistan, fighting a largely unseen enemy, blown up by roadside bombs. I can guess that it's about preventing the Taliban taking over Pakistan, but many are expendable pawns in the game of power politics.

A young man's dad looked after the family when his mum had post natal depression, then he couldn't cope any more and she put him out, hoping he would pull himself together, but he killed himself instead. Now his mum has cancer. Life can be a pig.

Nothing new.

Armies fought then, famines took a familiar toll, and the daily attrition of crime and injustice were business as usual. One man spread ripples of healing and truth in a troubled Roman backwater, and was then done to death cruelly, deserted and seemingly a failure. Just one more life cut short.
But he rose again and the ripples kept spreading, all the way to us.

Today, armies fight, disasters sweep thousands away, and oppression and crime are big business - let alone a few young men coming to grief.
We sing of salvation, but I feel our smallness in the face of the world's mess. The scale of it all is too great, and our own strength is a drop in the ocean of need. We have to look to Jesus for the means and the ends as the ripples keep spreading. So 'love the one you're with'.

Gestation Takes Off

2010-10-11T07:04:00.001-07:00

I am in a meeting at Anchorage house in Birmingham, where some key players are working through the gestation of a Birmingham Jesus Centre. The chairman first restated our charitable aims and objectives, with our distinctive of brotherhood and practical Christian commitment, so as to be clear about what we want to reproduce, and not be half-baked.

We spent a lot of time looking for key people in the local congregation and in the process realised that the 150 members who attend on Sundays include a lot of talent – plenty to run services, and probably key managers and officers too.That was the watershed as we realised we had the human resources required to make a BJC possible.

‘Finance is the least of our worries’, said Mike, surprisingly. Treasurers don’t often say that. The community and other members look to give well this year. Ideally local giving and fundraising would cover depreciation and refurbishment costs too, thereby releasing central funds for further JC developments. Mike estimated that a JC that cost £1.5m requires £150k annual funding altogether. It looks like there is still potential for enough extra giving by the congregation to reach their full share of that total.

Next we looked at a map of the city, and the character of the central districts, and agreed that faith would be the primary means of finding the right location for a centre, that many potential customers will be able to find.

Then we tackled a big issue: Do we want community accommodation on site? Most were very positive about that. Again, faith looks for the right people to respond to God’s call to live there.

We moved on to survey agencies in the city, and find that the provision has shrunk of late.

Can we identify the members of the sub committees? Who would be passionate to make a cafe work? The local team needs to fill in the main roles with names of owners.

The ops team will define what they want to do, and the premises team will turn that into a design brief. When we look for a building, the design brief tells us what needs to fit into it.

Then identify key groups and forums for the purpose of publicity and networking and assessing gaps in provision: That will include the voluntary service council, churches, and council forums to cherry pick. Our main leader, Mick, has been meeting local leaders, which helps our connection with the city.

Ahead are the critical path, considering training needs (that might be years), identify key staff and volunteer posts. Who will be Centre Manager? The most important skill is to be a team leader first and foremost. Others will be deputy manager, drop-in leader, administrators, facilities manager, volunteer coordinator, cafe champion, skills leader, maybe a fundraiser. 5 f/t equivalent for £90k/year.

At this stage the Premises team should now start to research buildings, the market, the best locations, any planning restrictions, and visit other Jesus Centres.

Fundraising for capital costs can start now, even before we have found a building, Ann said.

Reporting formats were shown, London JC’s business plan could be used as a guide to produce a BJC draft by the next meeting, as a basis for the design brief, and for fundraising. The local working group will pick these up next, and many people will be delegated to do work.

We’re tiring after 5 hours of talking (and a decent lunch break). We shall go away feeling that gestation has reached the 3 month point where the likelihood of going to term takes a big step up. To change metaphor, BJC is on the runway and taxiing. ‘You are cleared for take off.’

Visits and Visitors

2010-09-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Bridge drop-in has always attracted a lot of people.

In the five Bridge sessions of week 11.9.10 to 16.9.10 we recorded 318 visits by 167 different people. Over half the visitors have no home of their own.

We run another 25 services at the centre, including groups for Mums & Tots, over 50's, guitar learners and artists (pictured), bike repair, weight loss and exercise, and spiritual searchers.

It took five years from opening for the number of visits to other services to match numbers to the Bridge, at about 15,000 a year.

In the week commencing 22.6.09 we had 499 visits to all services by 247 people. 41 of them had never been to the Bridge drop-in.
10% of the visitors were members of our church (the centre is for them too).

What is harder to tell without our database yielding its secrets (it's in development) is the spread of services used by everyone, such as x visitors used 1 service, y used 2 services, z used 3 services, etc.

We are a centre for everyone, not just the homeless. Spread the word.

SRC at CJC OK

2010-09-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Solid Rock Cafe is a pretty cheesy name, but it does tell you something, and since we started doing Sunday night church like this about six years ago, it's still telling.

We realised, by a the usual clumsy process of group decision making, that we needed to break away from the traditional gospel event format. Actually Loz was the prime agitator, and we other leaders cottoned on and thrashed it out.
I do recall bringing some guys into the evening meeting then. What they found was rows of people sitting with their backs to them, and someone talking at them from the front - hardly an attractive welcome. And I also realised that what they really needed was to talk to someone who had time to listen.

We broke up the rows and had small tables instead with chairs round them. We had drinks served for the first hour, and free snacks dished out. The hardest thing was to get the church members out of their rut of being pew fodder and into actively engaging with each other and with visitors.
The event became one of mainly talking around the tables, punctuated by stuff from the front including videos, singers, various items. Some would go out and invite people in from the streets. The leader would give a short gospel talk later and people could get prayer. It rounded off with a knees up to lively songs.
That was the new the pattern and it still is. It works. We get lots of visitors and they generally love it.

What's that got to do with the Jesus Centre work?
It is very much part of it, because people can come in and see and hear what we are about, not in a lecture, but among the people. They can come and go, talk without being hushed up, and also get needs met like bedding to sleep out, or some food to take out, and of course friendship. Human needs are pretty simple really.

The Jesus Centre is about bringing the love of Jesus to all kinds of people, and this is one way that does that effectively. It rocks (that's so cheesy, but true).

You're Nicked

2010-09-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

As I went through the cafe area Alex mentioned that he had found two abandoned bikes round the back of the Jesus Centre this morning, and brought them into the yard. I thought that was handy as we needed more bikes to work on in the Re-Cycle project.

Later Simon rang me to say that we had had a theft and I could see on the cctv. It was bikes taken by a couple of young guys.

When I got round to looking at the cctv log for last night, I watched two teenage lads climbing over the yard gate and opening it, then taking three bikes and hurling a wheel or two over the back fence. One was visibly hesitant and his mate waved him on. They took the bikes round the back, and were gone. Presumably they decided to just take one of the bikes in the end.

I saved stills off the footage from three cameras and put them in time order, wrote an incident report, then rang the police.
I noted that we must make it harder to get over the gate, with plastic strips with spikes, or anti vandal paint.

Two officers came an hour or two later and we went through it. They both thought they recognised one of the lads and could trace him. They didn't want the broken lock - no chance of forensics there.
So I signed the report, got the crime number and agreed to make a DVD of the cctv record and try and find out the make of the bike that we lost. It was one that we sold to a guy who later sold it back to us when he needed cash. Where did it come from first? Probably donated, hopefully not stolen. It's certainly being well recycled.

There's a thief stealing lives and dumping them. I hope those lads turn up again one day to use the Centre and get recycled themselves.

Ten Friends

2010-09-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

>My fellow manager at the Jesus Centre, Ann Hawker, described her journey from the Jesus Centre to the bus station the other night (all of half a mile):

'Down Lamb Street to post a letter. Outside the Sorting Office was NW - just been beaten up - asked for some money - gave him a little.
Saw AS walking down.
Walked down Bishop Street and along Corporation Street towards bus station. Saw DM and AM on bench by Transport Museum - waved.
Saw NM on bench by bus stop - head bowed so didn't see me.
Went into the bus station.
Saw LE and AF being talked to by two policemen - nodded as went by.
Went to bus stop.
Saw SK sitting at table - a bit more sober than when previously seen after going on a bender from the dry house he had been in. Looking very battered. Encouraged him to make another appointment to go on the Bond Scheme. Asked for some money - gave him a little.
Bus arrived and two guys we know (can't remember who it was) got off bus as I was waiting to get on - waved.'

We meet a lot of street folk working here. I can't walk through town without meeting some, just like Ann. They're our people in this big village, it's great.

Long Lost Siblings

2010-08-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

This is so cool, I'm really chuffed.

As I write S is talking to his sister that he has had no contact with for decades.

He gave me his birth certificate on Wednesday to see if I could find any relatives. I Googled his dad's name and found a message on Genes Reunited from a woman looking for relatives too. No way to contact except by paying, an I'm stingy. Tried BT phone directory online, nothing. Back to Google and got another reference to his dad, on Lookup.com. This one had an email address. So I banged off an email and there was a message on our answer phone this morning from his sister in Norwich. She also sent a reply email and I got a Facebook message. We chatted via Facebook and I went into town to see if he was on his Big Issue pitch, but no. The newsagent staff nearby had seen him earlier.
Then to Gooogle Streetview for the name of the newsagents, tried to find their number but directory enquiries online is not so helpful. Googled it and got the number, rang and he was outside, so I got to speak to him, he came down to CJC and rang her. Luvly.

All Sorts

2010-08-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

It was pretty busy most of the time in the Bridge drop-in yesterday when I was in charge. We had the usual mix of East Europeans, Africans, drinkers and drug users, rascals, the lonely, folk with mental health issues, travellers, the deaf and the half blind. About twenty nationalities.

I talked to a couple of African guys who were sitting in the alcove.
One was from Nigeria and he is studying accounts and business at university; he's just got some financial problems. He was eating his breakfast with a student's appetite and looking round with interest.

The other was a big genial guy with a shiny shaved head, from Zimbabwe, who is waiting to hear back from the Home Office about his application for asylum - it's quite likely to come through, knowing how things are in his country. He is staying at the Peace House at the moment. That is a cooperative which includes a night shelter for asylum seekers with no income; it's a remarkable outfit set up by Penny Walker, who also started off the refugee centre.
Anyway, this chap is an auditor!

So there we were in the Bridge, an accounts student, and auditor, and me.
It takes all sorts.

Propping Everything Up

2010-08-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Entropy is defined in www.thefreedictionary.com as:
A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society. Etc.

Wikipedia says: The second law of thermodynamics states that in general the total entropy of any system will not decrease other than by increasing the entropy of some other system.

Or in my words: Disorder increases, and the universe is running down toward 'heat death'. Cheerful stuff.
Life goes against the entropy current by using energy to increase order; the net result is more heat, but it's a deal worth doing.

What am I on about?

Actually it's just a reflection on the way everything at the Jesus Centre breaks down sooner or later, and sometimes they fail in clusters. Simon, our hard-working Facilities Manager, says 'give me a break' sometimes, as yet another item goes down and needs fixing.
So we clean things, paint them, screw, unblock, stick, kick (well occasionally), pray (often), re-lay, rebuild, stitch, replace, reboot, refill, and, if all else fails, call out costly contractors.
It's a constant battle against entropy. Does that remind you of the fall? I mean the Genesis event, not the north American autumn, though leaves falling are true to entropy too.

It's sobering to watch everthing falling to pieces around you and having to expend time and energy to prop it up. Even more so to observe it in your body and brain, and that is the other part of what Jesus Centres are about: putting time and energy into people to increase order in their lives - for a while.

It is worth it.

Peopled Out

2010-08-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

Someone from London JC asked me the other day for advice about compassion fatigue. I said I hadn't had a problem with it, except for the very occasional case of thinking 'You're a selfish git' about a person in front of me.

I had found some volunteers expressing CF at times and I gave drop-in team leaders these notes:

Compassion fatigue

OK, so you get fed up with selfish demanding people. How do you cope with it?

1. Expect it. God is ‘kind to the selfish’ (Luke 6.35). And consider them as children to train, to some extent. We do see people change.

2. Recognise that our system does deal with trouble-makers by points and bans.

3. ‘Pan for gold’. We have baptised nearly 40 people through the Bridge. It makes it all worthwhile, apart from the good we do to many that we don’t see the results of.
4. You can enjoy people at their level, even if they are a pain at times. Try banter.

I went on to say that what I do have to reckon with is getting 'peopled out'. Days at CJC can be one long interruption, and I can't usually walk more than 3 meters without someone saying 'Piers! Can you...?' As I live in Christian community as well, there is little escape at home either, so PO'ness can be a problem. You have to escape now and then, either into Solitaire on a computer (no people, nothing important), or go for a walk somewhere quiet.

Even Jesus had to cope with this - Matthew 6.31 'they had no leisure even to eat'. Apart from that, keep on loving and giving.

You don't have to be mad to work here

2010-08-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

Julia has just started work here as our basic skills tutor. At yesterday's daily 'brotherhood' meeting she posed the question for each to answer:
Why do you want to work at the Jesus Centre?

The variety of answers was striking. (Photo is S and T)

N - The challenge. I'd never done this work before and I feel priveleged to work here. I have friends in the drop-in who can see how I have changed (came as a visitor, 6.5 stones, now double!).

G - I thought you lot were funny at first. One day I picked up the cups and you haven't got rid of me since. You make me feel welcome. I love it. It's nice to meet different people.

R - What I love about it is change. I've been here nearly six years. I started full of vision - and a lot of ideas which I don't have any more; it's become just what I do. But the flip side is that yes it's a privelege, interacting with some of the guys, getting to know them. Plus the flexibility helps, as I have a family.

B - Some of my oldest friends and heroes work here, who are available, and it's great brotherhood. I'm amazed that I'm allowed to just 'help people', though the paperwork is a drag. It's varied work, and stretching, as the next person extends you a bit more. I believe it's a great way of trying to be like Jesus. And my table tennis has improved greatly!

M - The people: the staff are always there for you. If it wasn't for the JA I'd be on the streets.

L - I like being around the brethren and meeting people from different backgrounds; helping in any way I can - I've been there myself. There are opportunities to help people to find Jesus. I found him through coming here.

S - The call of God was compelling to me. It's service. I meet people like (names), it's a real blessing. I click with the homeless in spite of having had a priveleged upbringing. And ping pong, doing music courses...

J - I came because it is a good Christian environment that strengthens my beliefs. There are a lot of people I look up to for practical Christianity. It's a battle try to behave and so I look at you.

T - When I worked outside I hated it, the bad language and talk; I was losing my spirit. Coming here pulled me up. The best is helping people in numerous ways. It sometimes gets hard going but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

P - It's a challenge to make it work and to display Jesus to the city. I'm needed in my job. I do get 'peopled out', but it all makes me grow.

V - Years back I felt strongly about injustice, so I love to show people justice and fight for it. I started as a volunteer in the cafe but I took the support worker job, as it was what I really wanted to to do. It's a witness of the kingdom. Sometimes I think 'I can't do this any more', but Jesus asked me to do it so I do, and it's what I want to do. I love it.

A - It was my vision. In outreach we met people but we did not have the capacity to meet their needs. The centre has enabled us to do that more fully. I do enjoy seeing lives turned round, and captivated by the kingdom, it's very precious.

J - When Jesus Centres were spoken about it was a vision that I hoped to be involved with somehow. I do the same kind of work outside but it feels limited and a bit stifling there as a Christian.

C - I have no choice. It's turn back or stay where God brought me. I love helping no matter what it is. It's my second home, I can't walk away.

Six of these first came as drop-in visitors, and are now staff or volunteers.

Ripples

2010-07-22T01:14:00.000-07:00

We had this email a few weeks ago:

Hi, there!
I'm a Canadian who works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside at a city-run community centre, and I'm coming to England for a few weeks. I'd love to stop in and see what other kinds of models for serving people exist, especially ones that are Christ-centred. I don't know what your accessibility policies are like, but I'll be in Oxford from the 9th of July to the 12th, so just a heads up to let you know that I might drop in and say hello.
Warm regards,
Sarah K

I said fine, and she came. She spent the morning in the Bridge drop-in and couldn't stop smiling. She told us that she couldn't get over how it fulfilled her dream of social action married with the gospel.

To be clear about that, one of our charitable aims is promotion of the Christian faith. That might not be allowed in super secular France - I don't know, but it's still fine in the UK. We train our volunteers to never push our faith on people; they can believe what they want. But over time our professional approach has given us the platform to be quite up front about our beliefs, and nobody finds it pressurising. We know that because we ask people.
Our only uniform is a red cross, and visitors quite often ask for one to wear themselves, which is fine.

We help loads of people in practical ways, no strings attached. Some visitors do eventually cross the line and become Christians, and often they join the volunteer teams serving others. Many visitors are affected positively by the atmosphere and ethos of Christian regard for others. So yes, social action and the gospel.

Funny to think that doing this in our little Centre reached all the way to Vancouver, like little ripples on a big pond.

Round-Up

2010-07-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

We did our annual survey of visitors in June. We got 51 returns, plus a dozen interview returns. 27 different services were reported as being accessed, and the average number of services used per person was 5. Only 58% use the Bridge. Ages and ethnicity matched the Centre's normal pattern.
So we are getting a fair spread of service uptake by the range of visitors.

Other bits and pieces:
There is work going on to tidy up our accounts processes, both locally and for all JCs - not that anything is dodgy, but to iron out differences and ensure controls are tight. It's classic back-room stuff for those who like such things.

We've got a volunteer to list all the equipment at CJC room by room today, for our contingency plan. So if the place goes up in smoke, we'd know exactly what to replace. Again, boring, but necessary. Risk management has got to be one of the big developments of this last decade.

I gave a refugee a free bike from the Re-Cycle collection today. He has a bad knee.

And CDT gave us a load of furniture from next door this week - most welcome.

We bid £30 for seven sturdy stacking chairs on eBay, and got them for 99p. We can get them collected from Cambridge for £15. Chairs are also boring, but not if you run short of them.

Julia Faire starts here on July 12th as our new skills tutor, 2 days a week. We've tried to set up basic skills classes with volunteers for years, but now we're employing Julia and she has a lot of experience. This will fill a big remaining gap in our portfolio.

A young Russian man who has an asylum appeal in process has been using the Centre. He stays at the Peace House night shelter, and has done good work on our allotment, as well as other useful tasks. He's pretty good at at table tennis too. He was baptised into church membership last week and has just been inducted as a volunteer. He might be moved to another city if he gets given accommodation - I hope he can stay in Cov. It's so good seeing lives changed positively.

Remember the working girls from previous blogs? We've heard from two more who have made dramatic turn-rounds, so it does happen.

Two of our volunteers are doing NVQ courses on Customer Service and Reception skills. It's good to be developing our volunteers too.

Lastly, I had this email yesterday via our website:

Hi, there!

I'm a Canadian who works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside at a city-run community centre,
and I'm coming to England for a few weeks. I'd love to stop in and see what other kinds of models
for serving people exist, especially ones that are Christ-centred. I don't know what your accessibility
policies are like, but I'll be in Oxford from the 9th of July to the 12th, so just a heads up to let you
know that I might drop in and say hello.
Warm regards,
Sarah K

It's a small world, and the work goes on.

Thanks for your interest.

5000 poor

2010-06-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

We log new visitors to the Bridge drop-in, and we have just hit the landmark of 5,000 different people having used the service since it opened in 2002. That's in a city of 300,000.
Over half have had no home of their own.
It shows the scale of the problem that still exists in 2010.

A few comments from the drop-in last week:

Found accommodation
Great friends and kind and supportive
Makes a difference being treated with respect
Good place to meet, friendly atmosphere
You help big time
Helps me make new friends and builds my confidence

And here is the winning poem from our Open Day competition, about being poor:

Poor old
Poor little
Poor dear thing
Poor show
Poor me
Poorly feeling

Rich cake
Rich stew
Rich an' famous
Rags to riches
That's rich, that is
Keep up with the Joneses

Blind rich
Stinking rich
Sinking while they sing on
Blessed poor
Simple poor

Theirs is the kingdom

James S gets five Bridge Breakfast vouchers as prize, to give away to the poor.

Later that same day

2010-06-19T01:27:00.000-07:00

After I wrote yesterday's piece about working girls who had changed their lives, who should walk into the Centre but D - known and loved back in the 90's and since. An attractive girl being wrecked by drugs, naf relationships, living NFA, and the hazards of the game.
Anyway, an African guy befriended her (not a punter) and when she was sent down for a while he visited her faithfully. When she got out they had a white wedding in Burundi - he came from a wealthy family.
Now she has young children, her health back, and a good future with a good husband. It's like a fairy tale.

She dropped in to see us, left her address and shot off. Then she came back in and said 'I can't come here and not get my prayer' - like she used to on the minibus in Hillfields. I was so glad to oblige. Made my day.

P.S. The next day a girl came to our Open Day who we knew from the beat but hadn't seen for a while. She looked much better and had her partner with her. She had got a place and he had been a big help to get off drugs and working, and now she was on the way to getting off methadone too. Yet another bit of good news!

Stories to warm the heart

2010-06-18T01:31:00.001-07:00

We knew T on the beat for years, addicted, gaunt, never smiled. She did use the Bridge, got basics, could be stroppy. But gradually she started thawing a bit. Then with support workers' help she got into a flat on the bond scheme. Gradually she got herself off drugs, off the beat, and into a study course. She makes beautiful cards to sell, and looks much healthier. The best thing is her smile.

C is another girl that we have known from the beat for perhaps 15 years. A hopeless crack and heroin addict she was always scurrying along the streets and getting food from us for the 'munchies'. Last year she ended up in hospital and at death's door. She prayed and recovered. Then one day she was at Your Space talking to Tony about her experience and she told him that she had never thanked God for saving her life. So he prayed with her and she said her thanks. Since then life has changed dramatically and she is living in a nice tidy flat and doing better than we have ever seen.

What you might call You-turns.

Our M&S

2010-06-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

Remember the Marks & Spencer furore a couple of weeks ago? I blogged about our collections being stopped by the local store with mixed messages about why. We asked head office and the press got interested.

Well today Laurence (impressive besuited fundraiser) and I (3rd sector manager in shirt, red cross and sandals) found our way through the lingerie to customer service, and then met the store manager in her surprisingly spartan office.
After clearing up misunderstandings, crossed wires, policy confusion, hygiene inspection and apologies, we agreed on reinstatement of the collections of food four times a week. They will continue to recycle the goods that we can't take.

Laurence will set up a positive article in the Cov Telegraph with a shot of the manager. She doesn't like having her photo taken but it should be ok.

A good result, and I thought you'd like to know.

On Our Shore

2010-06-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

It's like being a desert island and people wash up on our shore.

A couple of weeks ago the police brought us a young man who needed to get away from his mum's because some guys were after him. My colleague Simon took him under his wing and got him over to one of our church houses which is at Stockton. He's been there since, and flourishing. The team there visited his mum and she's happy too.

Another recent police referral was a guy they found drunk in his car. He had been staying in it for two weeks since falling out with his wife and they didn't know where else to take him. We let him sleep it off at the Centre and listened to his story. He went back for his car when he sobered up and felt better. Since then he came and told us he is back home.

A woman found us on the internet and came to see us. She had been trapped by circumstances for years and has been attending several services - Your Art, You're A Poet, as well as the church, and as she said, she is 'actually enjoying life again'. She wants to volunteer too.

Another woman, from Nuneaton, came last week via a friend and received basic counselling and prayer, which she said was very helpful.

A guy that we had had to ban indefinitely a long time ago came back last week and was so obviously changed in attitude that we let him in again.

The visitor who has been running Re-Cycle got some work a week ago, leaving us stuck for bike repairs. I told someone that we had to find someone by faith. That day Steve, another regular visitor, asked if he could help, so Re-Cycle has wheels again.

Sunny told his story to the crowd at Solid Rock Cafe on Sunday. It was rivetting. His life had been full of abuse and violence until in 2007 a friend urged him to try the Jesus Centre. We referred him to the house at Stockton and he has been attached there ever since, and doing well. He is a volunteer too.

It's not all happy endings of course. We heard last week that a man who came to the Bridge in 2005, got help with his drink problem, and became a volunteer, died in his flat in May at 61.

And new people came in today, with their own stories and needs. Maybe we can help them too.

It's a busy island.

Recycling or Reviving?

2010-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

We've been collecting surplus foods from M&S Coventry for a couple of years. I go on a Tuesday myself and get a car boot-full of their green trays replete with fruit, cakes, etc that we can use to feed people who are hard up. Others collect on other nights. If we didn't it would all have gone in a skip. Guys in the Bridge drop-in (right) appreciate the food they get.

Then I was told that it was stopping because we had defaulted somehow. I rang and asked what was going on. A manager told me that in fact they were going over to a scheme for recycling all surplus foods from stores nationally, shipping it back to hubs for energy production. We had a few weeks left. Then our collections stopped suddenly a week later. More calls, some confusion, and I haven't had the letter confirming it, as I was led to expect. Oh well.

But Laurence, a volunteer who helps with fundraising, queried it with M&S, who claimed that we had failed to collect on occasions, so it was stopped. Now that wasn't correct - we've probably defaulted less than half a dozen times in two years, and I've waited in the cold many hours in all for the stock (sniff).

Well Laurence went to the press and they are interested. We have no desire to bad mouth M&S in fact. All we are querying is this policy and asking why we can't still get some goodies for the homeless etc.
It turns out that this is indeed at the discretion of each store (head office say), so we are due to meet with the local managers and work something out. After all, what is valuable to our visitors is but small fry to M&S, recycled or not - that's my opinion anyway.

Let me quote two of our visitors from yesterday, who said I could do so:
Cliff Shaw: 'Tell them we would be truly grateful if instead of recycling the food they give it to people who need it badly. At the end of the day the people who come here rely on it. Some are homeless because of addictions or family issues - I've been there on the streets myself, but
I'm a trained counsellor now.'

Neil Wilson (street homeless): 'The food at Your Space is nice, good. Without it some wouldn't turn up, it would not be the same. I'm homeless and I don't eat much as it is. It really helps me.'
(Your Space activity zone shot at right)

I think it's good to fight the corner ofthe poor, don't you?

Details of a teenager's bedroom

2010-05-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I ran the drop-in this morning, and as a manager it's good to be on the shop floor to pick up on lots of detail.

Two volunteers didn't show up, but one guy filled in. How much do you have to remind people?
With the catering man off sick as well, I could expect some glitches, like washing up liquid and breakfast order forms run out. Fridge 2 had no temperature gauge and the sink drainer was grubby. The newish volunteer in charge had to defrost the bacon that was not taken out of the freezer yesterday. Even a business consultant can be at a loss as a volunteer, but he did well. I feel I know him better now.

Our new washing machine is slow and visitors' laundry built up. It looks like there is a better setting to use. Both hair clippers are broken and need fixing or replacing. While cleaning I noted that the ladies' loo flush seems a bit defective, and the shower seal had a gap in it. All items for the facilities manager (FM) to sort when he returns from leave, bless him.

The till cashed up strangely because the last receptionist used the wrong setting (today's spotted it), and the new database for visitors seemed to lose a name (later explained). During the morning the internet dropped out for people using the public PCs, so I texted Simon (FM) and rebooted modem and ipcop box as instructed; sorted.

A leaflet that I wanted to give to someone had run out, so I noted to get a volunteer to copy some more.

All helpful stuff for the endless process of fighting entropy (the tendency of the universe to become more disordered - like a teenager's bedroom).

In the actual session it was good to meet and befriend new visitors, enjoy old friends, provide clothing, phone calls, referrals, and what-have-you to various folk.

Now I'm home, and the lamp on this desk doesn't work. I need a rest.

3.75 Jesus Centres

2010-05-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Jesus Fellowship Church UK currently has 3.75 Jesus Centres, so to speak. Northampton Jesus Centre is the flagship (left), being central to our heartlands. Coventry's is a smaller building but a busy centre 30 miles away (last picture), and London JC is in Westminster, and has a community house of the church upstairs (next picture).
Sheffield has the next Jesus Centre in development. We have the building and the plan to open next year. Call it 0.5. After that Birmingham JC is in vision, and a team is beavering away at plans. That makes 0.25, total 3.75. I won't add decimal places for possible future centres elsewhere.

It has been interesting to look at figures from the three centres. Recording methods have been harmonised to allow comparison.

All three Centres have comparable numbers of visitors:
Coventry 500/week with 250 drop-in, 250 cafe and all other services
Northampton 750/week of which 500 drop-in + cafe and 250 other services
London 500/week of which 300 cafe + drop-in, 200 other services.

Outputs are what we do for people, and count. All three recorded 600-800/week.

Outcomes are records of progress made by visitors as a result of what we do for them. These are harder to capture but again all three centres seem to generate around 100/outcomes week. That is quite a lot of benefit to people. These can be further compared by including the numbers of staff and volunteers, or financial investment, required at each centre to yield their results. Work in progress.

We do ask ourselves how big a congregation we need to be able to run a Jesus Centre, and experience bears out a ball-park figure of 100 committed members and £100k/year available. This is a high investment venture for any church.

So Jesus Centres are a franchise. They aren't Starbucks but they do have a distinct atmosphere, ethos and style. They are professional in delivery but particularly human in approach. We are not full of experts in any field, but we do friendship well, and that is at a premium in so many lives.

Of course each Jesus Centre does have some of its own flavour as well. Northampton hosts striking cultural events like art exhibitions, and the cafe is very well done. London is strong on language classes and creative stuff. Coventry do well with the homeless, including an effective bond scheme.

The main common ingredient of this venture, rolling out Jesus Centres in more cities, is faith among a committed and united church membership. There are many stresses and strains, and an awful lot of management-type meetings, but in the end we are helping to change some lives for the better.

Jesus is in the Centre.

A simple send off

2010-05-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

I took the funeral of Phil S at Canley Crem this morning. We knew him through the Jesus Centre and Val got him into accommodation and helped him as a support worker.

He was a white Rasta who had lived and married in Jamaica in his past. So we played One Love by Marley as six men that we drafted carried in the coffin - Dave who found his body, Tony, another of our support workers (the last support!), a man who knew him from the gospel hall, and others.

I told the group of about 15 people that Phil was 57, and had no family or children. We wanted to pay respects to a friend.
Then a bit more Marley (Lion in Zion).

Brenda from the Chace hostel spoke a little and a colleague read a short poem. He had lived at the hostel for several years.

Val told us about how she had worked with him, and how fond she was of him. Shelley, his landlord's agent, was there, and she had cared for him too.

I explained a bit about the Rasta movement - worship of Haile Selassie, the world is Babylon, Zion is Africa, and use of cannabis is spiritual.

Then I said that the funeral service near my house lists the religions that it caters for: Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Humanism, Taoism, Bahai, Rastafarianism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Judaism, Islam, Unitarianism, Hinduism. Rastas don't like being called an 'ism in fact.
So we all need to decide what we believe and whether we want to live according to that, before we too pass on to meet God.

I quoted Jesus, that 'all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth - those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation', but believers shall not come into judgement (John 5). Funerals are important times to take stock of life.

We listened to By The Waters of Babylon as the curtains drew across and we said goodbye. Val wept - the truest farewell.

I prayed and we went out to Amazing Grace. We all need it.

The brother from the gospel hall was tearful afterwards, moved by the way that Jesus identified with and loved all kinds of people.
Love people while you can. What's more important than that?

Today at CJC

2010-04-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

What's going on at CJC? Lots.

Iain ran the Your Future photography class today, and they had fun again.
They also took these pictures of other stuff happening here.

Dave is 'on cue' in Your Space.

Dilys did a great painting of a hare in Your Art. She copied 'Hare' by Jackie Morris (really well).

Mums & Tots met happily.

Bev was teaching Anne-Marie guitar.

And our new sign was fixed on the gable wall!

Doing some homework

2010-04-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I Googled Coventry University Social Sciences, rang up and asked if they have students who might do some research here on Social Return On Investment.
I got passed along departments including nursing and psychology, then was lost altogether. At least it wasn't an automatic answer service 'If you want automotive engineering post graduate studies, dial 335..'

Back to the first number, I got some better details of relevant social science staff, but neither answered the phone.

Tried Warwick university next, got a switchboard number and a scarily efficient lady who put me through at once to the sociology department - who had gone home - well academics wouldn't be there after 5pm (I was one once).

If you've read this far I'd better explain.

I blogged about Social Return On Investment previously - 'Beware of the jargon...'
It's about measuring how much money is saved to society by a service like ours.

So our bond scheme would be an ideal service that a student could tackle as a project, to work out the SROI. How much does housing a homeless person save the local community? We housed Dave & Tracey (picture) successfully a while ago.

It may save the benefit system money, or the police and local retailers that they steal from if they have a drug habit. It may save the health services money if the person's health improves, as is very likely. And so on.

In the end we should be able to say that for every £1 invested in the service, £x are saved to all and sundry. That is a direct indicator of the service's effectiveness.

SROI is cutting edge, so it could be a hot area for student research. Hence my calls.

I'll pick it up again tomorrow.

Thursday
One phone call and progress! Got through to someone senior at Cov Uni who was interested and will consult those responsible for undergraduate and graduate research in sociology, and get back within a week. It could be a runner. Just like that.

Watch this space.