Education commission :
Tim Loughton, the former Children’s Minister, is to chair an independent commission which will assess the value of youth work taking place within formal education in England and Wales. It will look at the possibilities for youth work organisations to work in partnership with schools to give young people the widest possible opportunities.
Starbucks backs Oasis : The coffee giant Starbucks has signed up to goodwill initiative ‘Suspended coffee’, which will enable customers to reserve drinks for the homeless. ‘Coming soon, when a customer buys a suspended coffee, we will provide coffee to that value to our longstanding community-charity partner Oasis, which will distribute it through community hubs across the UK,’ said Ian Cranna, the vice-president of marketing at Starbucks UK.
JLS no more : Love them or loathe them, this super successful X Factor creation has announced their split later in the year. According to reports, JLS originally stood for ‘Jesus Loves Sinners’, but was later changed to ‘Jack the Lad Swing’. Erm…what?
Tackling youth unemployment : Frontier Youth Trust has launched the ‘One in a million’ resource, aimed at helping church and community groups deal with youth unemployment. The pack includes real life stories, talk and sermon prompts and a game. This ties in with their ongoing ‘One in a million’ campaign highlighting the issue.
CCPAS growth : The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) now has over 6,000 members. Simon Bass, CEO of CCPAS, said: ‘We are hugely encouraged by what this increase in membership implies for the current state of safeguarding in churches throughout the UK…that many thousands of local churches are putting safeguarding children and vulnerable adults at the tops of their agendas.’
‘I bemoan the fact that the Church has lost its influence in society – the Church was always a big part of my childhood; now people don’t take it seriously. The Church has lost touch with the youth… they need to try and re-engage.’ Bill Bailey, Guardian Weekend
