With the Big Society and radical plans to change the educational system in our country to allow greater local control, there has rarely been a better opportunity for Christians to get involved in community action projects.
Indeed, The Lighthouse Group (TLG), an educational charity which has been established for 15 years, aims to help children and teenagers ‘growing up in the toughest circumstances’, especially those who are at risk of being excluded from school. To find out more, EN sent David Binder to interview Rachel Morfin, manager of TLG’s early intervention programme.
EN: For TLG, what is ‘personal development’?
RM: Our early intervention programme aims to identify children who are at risk of exclusion from school. We work with the child within the school environment to prevent this from happening. We see ‘personal development’ as working with the child holistically. This involves working on a one-to-one basis, looking at factors that lead to the child misbehaving. In practice, this means looking at issues that the child may be facing at home and at school and attempting to help them understand how this is affecting them personally and those around them.
EN: In an early intervention programme, how does a child or teenager get referred?
RM: This is where churches become involved. We at TLG work in partnership with churches who feel passionately about helping children within their communities who are at risk of exclusion. TLG then trains church volunteers who can then go into the school and work with a child. Before this one-to-one relationship can begin, however, the church would approach a school and introduce them to the TLG Early Intervention Programme.
EN: How long would an early intervention programme typically last?
RM: The programme is still relatively new. We have just finished piloting it in a number of schools. In these pilots, the projects typically lasted for six weeks. However, following our evaluation of these projects we hope to roll out new programmes that consist of projects lasting a term. Each volunteer will commit to at least one year.
EN: How does Christianity and the gospel influence what TLG does?
RM: TLG is primarily interested in building relationships and making an impact socially and educationally with the children we meet. We promote ourselves as an organisation which understands early intervention and the impact it can have on the lives of the children we work with. We feel the church, with its long-established history in social action and community projects, is well placed to meet this need within schools. We also hope to be the bridge that enables schools to access local churches and churches to bring a wider support to individual children and their families.
EN: How are you funded?
RM: Our educational centres are, in effect, schools, so funding for those is half from local authorities and half is provided by a network of individual ‘hope givers’, individuals who donate to TLG. We also apply to local and national governmental and charity donation pools. For our early intervention programme, volunteers and funding are provided by the participating churches and schools.
EN: Where do you see TLG in ten years’ time?
RM: We aim to have a TLG Education Centre in all of the major cities in the UK by 2020. We envisage a network of Early Intervention Centres complementing this within those cities and surrounding towns. We are excited by the overwhelming response from school and churches who are keen to receive and give this kind of support.
Further information on TLG can be found at http://www.tlg.org.uk and also by contacting David Horsfall: 01274 900385 / david.horsfall@tlg.org.uk
