The church has a rich history of youth groups and projects for the benefit of tens of thousands of young people across the UK. Most of these are run by volunteers who give up their time in evenings and over weekends to make youth activities possible. But so much has changed in youth culture and experience that up-to-date training is essential. That’s why we’re enabling every church to run Youthscape Essentials.
The Diocese of London has obtained a 2-year license (until Feb 2027) so that any church in the diocese can run or join a Youthscape Essentials course for free (otherwise £95/church). You’ll get everything you need to run Youthscape Essentials – a leaders’ guide, session resources, the participant handbook, publicity materials and more.
YSE is a great training resource for churches that:
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Want to build their volunteer team’s confidence, or numbers of volunteers
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Are looking for ideas to get something started for young people
- Have a vicar who completed the Launchpad course
Read below to find out how to get started running or joining a course in our diocese.
How to run your own YSE course
It’s easy to access, plan and run Youthscape Essentials in your church. Follow the steps below to get started:
First, find a co-host and book onto an “all you need to know” workshop to maximise your chances of running the course successfully. This will help you to decide the best model for delivering the course in your context and familiarise you with the course materials before you dive in. You’ll also get a chance to ask any questions directly to Youthscape.
When you’ve done the workshop, you’re ready to plan your own course.
Once you’ve completed the workshop for new course hosts, you can request access to the license which then will enable you to access the portal, set up a course and access all the resources.
This takes you to an online form – we’ll send you instructions directly once you’ve registered.
If you have trouble accessing it please email us to let us know.
Once you have an account in the YSE portal, you can register your course! Your course will be assigned a unique course code which can then be used by participants to receive an exclusive resource as well as a certificate on completion of the course.
When you register your first course, you’ll also receive some goodies from Youthscape to help in your course delivery and just to say ‘thank you’.
It’s time to invite people. In the YSE portal you’ll find publicity materials to help you make posters or images to share with people for the invite.
You invite participants to register for your course using your course code at this link: youthscape.co.uk/yse/register
When participants register, they have the option to sign up to receive a free digital resource from Youthscape, to help with their own ministry.
If you need any help with this, just let us know. The diocesan team will help get the word out to your Episcopal Area and/or Deanery and we plan to include a section in our emails listing the courses planned, so people can see easily discover where courses are running near them. If you have any ideas about how else we can help promote your course to churches, get in touch.
The YSE portal will helpfully remind you about upcoming sessions and put the resources you need right in front of you when you log in. It’s simple and easy to prepare for each session, so that anyone can run it. Youthscape will run through this on their “all you need to know” workshop so you can see this in practice.
How you run the course is up to you – food, frequency, fun, format – it’s completely up to your church to decide what will work best.
If you need any support whilst your course is running, you can contact the diocesan team, or ask Youthscape any questions about the content.
We’d love to hear stories from churches who run the course and the impact it has. We’ll follow up with you about this and offer any support on the back of it, whilst your course is running.
Youthscape will also be in touch to invite you to their Community of Learning, to understand how the course could be improved and share some extra resources with you.
Get started
Book onto an “all you need to know” workshop then request access to the license by clicking the button below.
What is Youthscape Essentials and why has the diocese licensed it?
Over three years a team of youth ministry practitioners, young people and volunteers created and tested a new approach to training volunteers. Built around the three key themes of insights, skills and faith, there are thirty key topics which cover almost every aspect of volunteering. Step-by-step you’ll grow in your capacity and confidence to work alongside young people. And as the world continues to change, new research will inform the course and it will change too – keeping people up-to-date and equipped.
YSE is brilliant for getting volunteers trained in essential aspects of youth ministry – and feedback has been highly positive. With a diocesan license, our hope is that the course will be hosted by at least ten churches across the diocese with an open invite for others nearby to join. If your church is looking for an easy way solution for volunteer training and you’d like to help train others, you’re an ideal host.