Annual Report 2014

Introduction 3

About us 4

Highlights 5

Alway 6

The Cwtch 9

Duffryn 10

Eli Music 12

Training & Resources 14

!2

James HenleyTeam Leader

Introduction The last year has seen some significant developments in the life and ministry of The Lab community.

Our two newest areas of work - Duffryn and Eli Music - have been growing well, whilst our existing hub in Alway has gone from strength to strength. And The Cwtch is in an exciting transition phase with the first glimpses of something fresh beginning to appear.

As we review the past year, we’re really inspired by the ways in which God is at work, in us, and among those we love and serve.

!3

About us The Lab is a community of missional people, groups and initiatives. We exist to encourage experimental forms of church and mission in and around Newport, South Wales. !Our Aims • Growing new forms of church  with those who have little or no church

background. • Serving local communities,  particularly working with young people and in

areas of deprivation. • Developing young leaders who will lead the church into the future. !

Our Hubs The Lab is made up of several different hubs, each with their own focus and identity grounded in loving and serving those outside of the church.

!Working in Partnership The Lab is supported in partnership by, and accountable to, the Church in Wales and The Methodist Church. We also work in partnership with other local churches of different denominations and backgrounds. The Lab is also part of StreetSpace, a network of over 50 innovative Christian youth & community work projects around the UK.

!4

During 2013-14 we have…

• Seen the youth club grow in Alway, with a group of young people now exploring discipleship

• Launched the new Eli Music hub

• Formed a new mum’s group and music club in Duffryn

• Delivered mission shaped ministry training coursewith 42 participants from across South Wales

• Released ‘The Experiments’, a resource exploringhands-on spirituality with young people

Highlights

!5

Alway Our Alway community, based at St Teilo's Vicarage, continues to go from strength to strength.

The youth club which we run in partnership with Bishpool Methodist Church has grown dramatically this year, and in addition a group of older young people have come together to explore Christian spirituality and community together. Also this year we were joined by Troy, whose first meaningful contact with church was through The Lab’s ministry, and who grew up just down the road from our community house.

Philippa TraynarYouth Work Apprentice

Matt DavisAlway Hub Leader

Jess DavisLab Administrator

Troy CousinsYouth Work Apprentice

!6

In the Community

Detached Youth Work

Despite its success this year there are still young people who can’t or won’t make it to our youth club. To engage with as many teenagers as possible, we have been regularly going out in the local area where we do activities on the street. Things we have been doing recently include chalk graffiti, ultimate frisbee, and during the winter we carried hot drinks to help everyone warm up.

The Experiments

We’ve also formed a group of six young people exploring spirituality together, utilising our own in-house resource called ‘The Experiments’. This is a hands-on way of exploring spirituality utilising our own translation of the beatitudes, where each week there is a challenge or ‘experiment’ for the young people to attempt.

We have just come to the end of these sessions, but are still continuing to explore discipleship with the group.

Bishpool Youth Club

Youth club has had and has been a really exciting place to be this year. We took a risk changing the day and time, and now have between 20 and 30 young people attending each week.

Activities we’ve organised include sports, cooking/baking and laser Tag. Each week we also have a reflection station which offers a simple opportunity for young people to reflect on their lives and take first steps exploring spirituality.

Mentoring

At the beginning of the year we undertook some training in mentoring, and as a result have started developing a one-to-one mentoring project. We aim to help a young person over 24 sessions, talking through and responding to any issues which affect them.

‘The Lab is an extremely positive initiative bringing encouragement and support to a struggling area of South Wales... It has been incredible to be a part of and see the positive results embodied in the young

people that they have been helping.’

!7

Lunchtime Chaplaincy

This year we have maintained our visits into the High School during lunch times to be a pastoral presence on the school grounds. We often bring objects or activities in to help interact with the young people and create a comfortable environment. It is a great opportunity to provide time to deve l op pos i t i v e and pu rpose f u l relationships, with new contacts made that have been hard to reach before, while previous connections continue to flourish.

GSUS Live

At the start of the year, the GSUS Live trailer visited the school for a week. Our team staffed the trailer for this week, teaching interactive lessons on the topics of fear, rejection and forgiveness. We got to see all the students of the school. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know the young people and their views, values and beliefs. We also were able to promote our youth club which must have made some impact as numbers in the club have significantly increased since.

Llanwern High School

Music Club

Working in partnership with our Eli Music hub, we have the pleasure of joining the team when they visit Alway primary on Tuesday afternoons. It's great fun and it's lovely to see so much enthusiasm and the skill of the children grow.

Assemblies

Each Monday morning we deliver an assembly, alternating between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. In each assembly we act out a bible story, involving the children by asking for volunteers and/or including actions and sound affects to join in with. To end each assembly there is time for reflection, followed by a short prayer.

Alway Primary School

‘Working with the Lab was fun!They made us feel interesting

and important.’

!8

The Cwtch The Cwtch is the new name for our city centre young adult community. Ed Hodge, Abbie Cook, Ben Edwards, Dan Smith

Our new Cwtch gathering has taken the place of the more formal Lab Sunday night gathering, and we now meet together on a Sunday night in a pub in Newport city centre.

We meet at 6.30pm, and normally have food together. It’s a great chance to catch up with everyone and relax before the start of another week. We start the evening by giving thanks for something we a grateful for, and each week someone volunteers to lead the session. The theme is of their choice and we tend to talk about different topics, stories or theologies in creative, explorative ways.  It is much more interactive, and we talk through issues together.

The intention is to create a safe and honest space to worship, doubt, love and trust together. We want to share our stories of Hope, Joy, Beauty and Creativity and at the same time be bold enough to share our burdens, worries and hard times. We welcome questioning, value participation and see church as common property not belonging to one person but at its best when a community find a common goal in searching for Jesus.

There is a core group of about 12 people who meet every week, but we are part of a very wide community, and readily welcome new members. We also take opportunities to hold social events, and have so far have enjoyed BBQ’s, movie nights, game nights, pub quizzes, walks in the countryside together and prayer evenings.

!9

James, Amy & Evie Henley

Duffryn We’re continuing to build new relationships in Duffryn and are beginning to find ways to develop further some of the connections we’re making.

We have really appreciated the goodwill and support of Duffryn Community Church, the Anglican congregation on the estate, and are looking forward to finding more ways to partner together.

The last year has had some challenges, particularly trying to find other likeminded people to team up with us in Duffryn. However, with the help and support of the other Lab hubs we have been able to start some new things, and begin to gain some momentum.

!10

Mums’ Group

We’ve been supporting a group of new mums and their children, which has continued to grow in numbers and depth. It has a lso helped to develop good relationships with the staff of the Forest Children’s Centre and the local Health Visitors.

Duffryn Junior School

In addition, with help from the rest of the team, we’ve been developing work in Duffryn Junior School with a regular after-schoo l mus ic c lub and b i -week ly assemblies.

Tredegar House

Tredegar House is a large National Trust property right next to the Duffryn estate. James has been invited to join their Community Engagement Steering Group, which has introduced a discounted pass for local residents and several other projects engaging local young people.

Detached Youth Work

We’ve been using regular detached youth work sessions as a way of getting to know the local community, and finding out what local young people are up to. Over the May Bank Holiday we also offered free face painting as a way to get to know local families.

!11

Eli Music The Eli Music Project is our new initiative, providing opportunities for children and young people to develop through music.

It’s exciting to see how quickly Eli Music has developed over the last year.

Sarah Gregory Music Development

Worker

Abbie CookMusic Development

Worker

Parent & Toddler Workshops

Contacts within the Gaer Infant school and the local community have led us to organise our own Parent & Toddler Music Group! This started on 31st March, and we have had a loyal group of 8 families sing and play together. We learn new songs, play our instruments, dance to action songs and engage in music therapy techniques to encourage interaction between parents and their children.

We have also been regularly visiting three other existing parent & toddler groups in the local area with musical entertainment and singing time.

!12

Music Clubs

We are now providing lunch time and after school Music Clubs in Alway Primary School, Duffryn Junior School, Maesglas Primary School and St Patrick’s Primary School.

The Music clubs have been exploring different types of music each week since January, these include Welsh Music, Movie Music, Choral Music and many others! It has been a great experience introducing the children to new styles of music, and encouraging them to respond and learn.

Starting in May, we then had an intense few weeks of learning the Ukulele together! It was a great experience, to sit in smaller groups and really get to know the children, while teaching them a new instrument.

We finished our year in each school with a sing-a-long assembly. The music club showed off their skills in performing songs while the rest of the school sang and danced along. It was a great way to end the year!

Family Learning

A new venture for us has been taking part in the Family Learning Program at the Gaer Infant School. In this program, families are encouraged to take part in six week courses that encourage learning and interaction between parents and their children. As part of this, we deliver a series of workshops entitled ‘Music Madness’.

‘The music club is extremely popular with the pupils, the sessions are very lively and engaging, the girls’ infectious enthusiasm transfers to the children who thoroughly

enjoy every minute.’ Richard Hughes (Head Teacher, Alway Primary School)

!13

Training & Resources As The Lab has continued to develop, we’ve also increasingly attempted to provide resources and training for the wider Church.

mission shaped ministry

In October 2013, we launched the Newport mission shaped ministry course, which is a one-year part-time course written by Fresh Expressions for those who are interesting in exploring new forms of church and mission. This has been a huge success, with 42 participants taking part across several different denominations and many different churches across South East Wales.

!14

The Experiments

We’ve also released The Experiments, which is a youth work resource helping young people with no previous religious background to explore spirituality in a hands-on way. This is a resource we originally developed to use with our own young people which, in partnership with Frontier Youth Trust, we’ve been able to release more widely.

Jon To, a Youth Worker in Chelmsford Diocese, was one of the first to get hold of The Experiments and use it with a group of young people. He says:

Training & Speaking

In addition, we’ve been invited to deliver presentations and training at Swansea & Brecon Diocesan Conference and a Continuing Ministerial Development day for St David’s Diocese, as well as speaking at several local church services in Newport and across Wales.

‘It’s going really well, and all of the young people have been heavily engaging in the activities…

Something really cool that has come out of it was the week when we were experimenting with “God is with those who choose to control their strength”. It asked the participant to let somebody win in an argument. An atheist who didn’t really get the point of that asked “What if they’re wrong?” and we started to get to the root of some of her feelings. She

was adamant that people needed to be corrected if they were wrong, but I talked about winning the argument, but losing a friend. The following meeting we talked a bit more, and her views had completely softened.’

!15

The Lab is supported in partnership by the Church in Wales and The Methodist Church.

The Lab, 11 Aberthaw Ave, Newport, NP19 9NS

Tel: 01633 666307 Email: hello@thelabnewport.org

thelabnewport.org

Experimental Church and Mission