Young reach out to their friends

Grants group: (left to right) Katherine McPherson (Archbishops' Council representative), Revd Canon Paul Bayes, Jayne Tarry, Revd Peter Ball, Rt Revd David James, Amy Forrest, Rebecca Swinson, Richard Whitmill

The grants group of the Youth Evangelism Fund (YEF) met at Church House in Westminster to award more pump-priming grants of up to £3,000 to evangelistic projects and events proposed by young Christians.

Together with YEF Chairman Rt Revd David James, Bishop of Bradford, and National Mission and Evangelism Adviser Paul Bayes, the group – which includes specially invited youth leaders from various parts of the country – spent the afternoon discussing the relative merits of dozens of exciting ideas, submitted by young people aged 11 to 20 in eight Church of England dioceses.

Launched in 2006, the YEF grew out of a report presented at General Synod in 2002 entitled Good News for Young People: The Church of England's National Youth Strategy, which included proposals for a Youth Evangelism Fund.

Its purpose is to enable more young people to connect with the Gospel and develop faith within the life of the Church by allowing the young to share faith with friends in ways that make sense to them.

Each year for five years, eight or nine dioceses are to receive YEF support for equipment, promotional activities and resources.

To qualify for the funding, projects, submitted on a simple application form, must focus on evangelism, and be prayerful and culturally appropriate. Applications should detail proposed results.

This year funding of up to £195,000 – awarded by the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England (£100,000), the Henry Smith Charity (£50,000), Laing Family Trusts (£25,000), and Jerusalem Trust (£20,000) – is being shared between projects in the Dioceses of Chelmsford, Derby, Exeter, Leicester, Lichfield, Manchester, Ripon and Leeds and Truro.