REACHING
OUT: EDUCATING, SUPPORTING, ENCOURAGING and TRAINING young people
Why We Exist…
Bar ‘N’ Bus exists to support and equip churches in their outreach
to young people in South East Essex. Through the use of Double Decker buses, we
are able to provide relevant up-to-date resources, experience and expertise to
enable churches and individuals to reach out to young people in and around
their local communities. We aim to
achieve this by forming partnerships with local churches.
We also provide a counselling service to local secondary schools
which means we can provided young people with one to
one support.
Our
aims are:
Reaching out...
...by sharing our Christian views and life values with the
young
people on the streets.
...by providing a strong link between local church groups
and the
young people in the community.
...by providing a safe environment for young people to
gather
and meet with their friends.
...by
helping young people who face difficult and challenging
issues in their lives.
.
Educating...
...by helping young people to think about the right choices
in life
from an
informed point of view.
...by running 'Making Anger Positive' courses in schools,
this helps
to educate young people in how to deal with negative anger
and how to control it.
Supporting...
...by providing a listening ear to young people they are
able
to share the ups and downs of life with people who truly
care and want to listen. This then helps young people to
gain a
sense of purpose, value, and self confidence.
Encouraging...
...by challenging and encouraging young people to find
alternatives
to the cultures of drugs, alcohol, sex and crime.
...by
showing an interest in the lives of young people, we are able
to encourage them in areas such as schooling, further
education,
job-seeking, employment and all other aspects of
everyday life.
Training...
...by providing training for all our workers in issues such
as
youth
culture, listen skills & child protection, this helps
to
equip our volunteers to have the confidence to reach
out to
their local young people.
...by offering 'Peer counselling' training to young people in schools,
we are
able to help them form friendship with other peers
and then to support them in the issues that they face.
Our
History…
Our founder
writes, “It really all started when I regularly noticed young people hanging
about in groups, on street corners, not only in the summer, but also in the
winter too. They were a nuisance, and often in trouble, and liked to hang
around in large groups. People found this threatening, and the police would
often turn up and move them on. I would listen to people, often joining in
myself, who would complain about them, but we were not prepared to do anything
to help! Drugs, alcohol, crime and vandalism, what are kids getting up to these
days? It was never like this when I was young.”
A group of
church youth leaders got together and decided to do something about the
problem. We thought that if these young people would not come to us, we had
better go to them, and what better way than a double decker bus, customised and
made to look credible, with a team of Christian volunteers made up from the
local churches working on the bus for the kids to talk too.
With this
vision, the Bar ‘N’ Bus Trust mobile bus project was founded. Our aim was to
offer a healthy environment for young people to relax, talk and get help, to
model positive Christian life values as an alternative to the street culture of
drugs, alcohol, crime and vandalism. We purchased and converted a double decker
bus and in 1993 our first mobile bus team was launched along Southend Seafront.
1993 1st Mobile bus team launched on Southend
Seafront
1994 School Workers programme launched
1998 Drug Advice programme launched
1999 Schools Counselling programme
launched
2001 Southend Seafront Centre opened
2003 Mentoring established and the 10th
mobile bus team launched
in
2005 Partnership initiative established
Since we
began we have had many mobile bus teams, been involved in schools work, counselling,
mentoring, and helping to organise local Christian youth events. However,
recently we believe that God has brought us back to where we started and are
now concentrating in two areas; Bus Teams and Counselling.
Board
of Trustees:
Chairman - Mr
Phillip Pavitt
Secretary - Mr Neil Buckland
Cllr Norman
Smith
Rev.
Mr Steve Tinning
Mr David Christian
Mr Colin Campbell
Registered Charity No. 1055210