from Christian Today
Churches could be providing as many as a quarter of a million essential community services across England, according to new research.
Churches are making a significant but often overlooked contribution to essential community services across England, according to a new report.
The Heart of the Neighbourhood report, published by Gather Movement, identified 12,840 instances of regular community provision among 1,632 churches and Christian charities surveyed across 25 local authority areas.
The services ranged from foodbanks, youth clubs and parent-and-toddler groups to mental health initiatives, debt advice and support for people affected by homelessness.
The churches surveyed provided an average of eight essential community services each. If this reflects what churches are doing across England, it could translate to around a quarter of a million such services being provided in total.
The report defines essential community services as church-run activities that are open to everyone, regardless of their faith, background, age, gender, ethnicity or ability – although it did not measure levels of participation or effectiveness.
Researchers examined 54 different types of provision across four broad areas: children and families, food security, mental health and wellbeing, and housing and homelessness.
Around half of the activities identified supported children and families, including parent-and-toddler groups, youth clubs, holiday clubs, parenting programmes, mentoring and work in schools.
Churches were also found to be operating foodbanks, food pantries, community cafés and shared meals, as well as providing emergency food, debt advice, money coaching and employment support.
Mental health provision included counselling, recovery groups, dementia cafés, peer-support groups, suicide-prevention initiatives and activities designed to improve wellbeing and reduce isolation.
Churches were also involved in night shelters, supported accommodation, housing advice, refugee integration projects, English-language classes, job clubs and digital inclusion programmes.