It was about 3pm, the school run beckoned and my productivity for the day had been nil, nada, nothing.
I was recently bereaved and couldn’t seem to get anything done or muster the energy to get out of the door. Anyone who has been bereaved will know that it can leave you unable to be, do or act.
What I didn’t know was this was the most valuable moment of my year as CEO of a youth violence charity.
Loss and bereavement are common experiences of the young people the charity helps. At the click of fingers I was transported into the probably smelly, likely fashionable trainers of a bereaved young person. And the deaths I was experiencing as untimely were aged 36 and 42. The young people’s losses of their friends are most often only aged 15 or 16.
As I made endless cups of tea, I thought through the services that the charity would give me if I were a young person. Each one brought me to tears:
- A friendly face, someone trained and present to mentor me;
- Someone who understood the context, the community and honoured my feelings and loss;
- The joy, camaraderie and hope of a youthwork team and the volunteers making it possible.
The vision of Mary’s Charity, born in St. Mary the Virgin Church in Camden is being a specialist beacon for vulnerable young people affected by serious youth violence. That may be a mouthful, but each of us in our sadnesses can think through what vulnerable really means, and how much help is a loving hand in the darkness.
Mary’s can provide churches across London with a template for being a beacon too. We offer partnership with churches to look at options – it can be as simple as hosting a knife bin.
Join us: providing light in the dark.
If your church is doing something in your community to help tackle youth violence, or creating safer communities for our young people, then please let us know!
And if you’d like to, but don’t know where to start, the Compassionate Communities team are happy to come and talk it through and signpost to appropriate organisations, such as Marys. Drop Alison an email or give her a call to arrange a visit.
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