Background to the movement
In the months leading up to the 2001 General Election, the Oasis Trust together with a few key partner organizations initiated a campaign calling on the incoming Government to recognise the vital contribution that churches and Christian projects make to local communities and to end discriminatory practices against them in areas like funding and partnership.
Since these beginnings, Faithworks has developed books, self-help packs and training programmes, delivered conferences and lectures bringing together politicians, journalists and community activists in order to equip and empower churches and Christian projects.
Faithworks Aims
- Empowering and inspiring individual Christians and every local church to develop their role at the heart of their community.
- Challenge and change the public perception of the Church by engaging both government and media.
- Encourage unity and partnership to meet the needs of local communities.
These aims remain at the heart of the movement together with Faithworks commitment to the following principles:
- Commitment to Identity and Inclusion
Faithworks believes that Christian identity should not lead to exclusion but instead be an agent for inclusion. When identity is known by the holder, it can never be taken away and it certainly does not need to be imposed on others in order to be valid. Faithworks believes that Christian organizations recruiting staff who hold a Christian faith, can be trusted to deliver services equally and fairly to all members of the community.
- Commitment to Excellence in delivery of public services
The Faithworks Charter was designed to help Christian projects and organizations demonstrate their commitment to excellence and to adhere to equality and diversity legislation in their working practice and service delivery. This has been signed and implemented by a number of Christian organisations and church denominations in the UK, who work tirelessly to unconditionally serve their local communities to the highest possible standards.
Current Focus
In the coming 12 months Faithworks is focused on achieving its aims through our work in the following areas:
Faith to Engage:
Faith to Engage will work to strengthen the voice of churches and faith inspired projects’ in regional policy making and be delivered in partnership with 9 regional partners. Rebranded from the Regional Network Support Project, this 5 year project, funded by the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund, will support and resource networks of faith sector organisations in each of the nine government regions in England, by working with existing local and regional bodies. In addition to improving faith sector representation at regional government level, the project also aims to increase regional bodies’ understanding of what makes faith-inspired service delivery distinctive, to create more service delivery partnerships and to enable more support from infrastructure agencies for faith inspired organisations.
Charities Parliament:
Charities Parliament is a Faithworks initiative, located in the Oasis Centre, which is committed to inspiring debate, dialogue and interaction as well as a deeper partnership and mutual accountability between churches, Christian agencies and faith groups working within the Voluntary Sector and Government. Charities Parliament will deliver a stimulating programme of lectures, briefings, debates and workshops The first of these, was the successful event held on 23rd February 2009, where the Rt Hon Jim Knight addressed the question of An Educational Oxymoron – Can Every Child Matter In A Culture of League Tables and answered questions from a select audience of sector leaders and activists.The next event will take place on the 3rd June 2009 , when Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP will address the Charities Parliament on Breakthrough Britain: The role of faith inspired and voluntary agencies in mending broken Britain.
Resourcing:
Faithworks is producing new resources to continue to equip churches and Christian community projects working in local communities. Developed jointly by Faithworks and Spring Harvest the Community Art Resource is a new free guide which profiles different art projects and seeks to empower the church to celebrate the arts and explore ways in which art can be used as a vehicle for mission in their own location.
The Charter:
Faithworks are focusing again on the issue of helping faith groups respond to Equality Legislation ahead of the 2010 Equalities Bill and are calling on the government to equip local authorities to understand how to measure adherence to legislation by faith inspired organizations and resource faith groups to demonstrate their commitment to the legislation, through the development of the Charter for Excellence.
Faithworks Awards 2009:
The Faithworks Awards Programme 2009 is well underway and we have received more than 150 applications and have shortlisted 17 outstanding projects ahead of the Awards Ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in June.
360 Building Whole Communities - Faithworks Conference 2010
The fourth national Faithworks Conference, will be held in Enfield, London from 26-28 February 2010. It will bring together an exciting line up of speakers, Christian projects and churches who are working together with schools, local authorities, health professionals and the police to bring 360° - social, spiritual, emotional, educational and physical - transformation to their communities
The Faithworks Team:
Nancy Doyle, as the new Faithworks Team Leader, is driving the Faithworks movement forward and building on the work of Malcolm Duncan since and the restructuring of the Faithworks team at the end of 2008. Nancy has a background in theological study as well as many years experience in the of delivery of community based projects and a determined commitment to the vision of Faithworks. Having led the team through a difficult restructure, she continues to seek innovative and sustainable ways for Faithworks to continue to inspire and equip local churches and Christians.
