2009/2010 has been a year of planting, growth and pruning. We have seen Rock Solid morph into two new clubs: NRG and Mettle. Kids Club and IGnight are starting to establish themselves and @mosphere has closed. Notable encouragements include the positive impacts of Newday festival and The Crux Media Week in the High School, as well as the growth of The Crux Lunch Club.

Newday Youth Community Project(s):

We are very excited to announce that this summer (from Thursday 12^th to Monday 16^th August) we are organising to bring into the community a substantial number of young people to be involved in large scale community projects in Poringland and Framingham Earl. From 6,000 to 8,000 young people (11 to 18’s) from all over the country are expected to attend the ‘Newday’ Youth Festival at the Norfolk show-ground at this time. On the afternoon of each day hundreds of these young people will volunteer to be bussed into various communities in and around the Norwich area in order to serve these communities in practical ways. The minimum number will be one coach full (49 young people) but it will be possible to receive several hundreds (or even more) if we can come up with ideas to organise and utilise them.

We also expect local teenagers from Poringland and Framingham Earl to be included amongst the volunteers. As well as the physical labour such a group will provide, we feel it will also serve to raise the reputation of teenagers across the local community and help develop community spirit, especially across the different generations. Last year, similar projects were held in different areas in and around Norwich and the Police say they are still noticing the positive impacts where these community projects happened; the local press were also often involved.

@mosphere

Very regretfully, we recently had to announce that due to long-term, persistent anti-social behaviour this term time Monday night drop in youth club  has had to be closed indefinitely.
On a more positive note, as a result of this closure, we have now been able to allocate more time to new and existing activities and dates at the Crux lunchtime drop in at Framingham EarlHigh School; this is a much safer and controlled environment for everyone concerned.

While we feel it was necessary to stop @mosphere for the time being, the @mosphere model will probably be brought back again at some time in the future but with a different branding. However, we feel it is unwise to do so too soon due to reasons for the closure.

Camps:

We have secured £600 from a successful grant from the diocese to subsidise ticket costs for NYFC's Spring Camp 2010 and Newday in August. From the success of last years Newday, we hope to camp with OakGroveChurch again. So far thanks to the subsidies we have 8 young people booked in to Newday, and 7 young people booked in to Spring Camp. Last year God really spoke to the young people through Newday and its so encouraging to see them grow in their faith.

IGnight:

(Youth Event / 'Service' for 11- 18's)

IGnight is in its second year and has been really encouraging, with different young people taking on leadership. We are thinking about taking the IGnight young people along to 'Wildlife' every other month, with IGnight volunteers volunteering to drive young people in convoy.

Kids Club

KIDS Club is a club for 5 to 9 year olds meeting monthly in Poringland Village Hall on the third Wednesday of every month between 16:45 and 19:00. It has a similar content, but necessarily reduced in scope, to what we offer in the summer holiday club. The idea is to nurture this age group towards the clubs we have for older children (NRG and Mettle) and also to offer a follow-up to the holiday club. Since KIDS Club began in Autumn 2008 our records show that 50 different children have visited KIDS Club at least once. However, the average number attending in any one evening is about 12 and they tend to be in the 5 to 7 years age bracket. We are very thankful indeed to an enthusiastic group of volunteers consisting of Johny, Ronnie, Amy, Nik, Robert, and Sean. And we are also very thankful indeed for Andy in setting up the audio-visual equipment each month.

Mettle:

Mettle (Activities / Themed Club for 13 – 16's)

Mettle is a small group for 13-16's, while we are disappointed it has not attracted more young people we have benefited from better small group discussions. For this term we are taking the group to do NYFC's 2010 Youth Alpha course at the Kings Centre in Norwich, along with some young people from Fram. Gospel Choir.

NRG:

(Games Club for 9 – 12's)

NRG (to fill the 9-12's gap) started last term alternating with Mettle. While each session so far has gone really well, we have about five 9 - 12's coming. We have eight young leaders currently helping with this club and I have been impressed with how well they are doing. I feel the clubs purpose is not only to provide something for the 9 – 12's, but also to develop confidence and leadership in these young leaders. Please pray for the growth of NRG.

Poringland Youth Club

The Friday night Council run club has had the same behavioural problems as @mosphere, but we have brought in no nonsense ground rules which seem to be bearing fruit. The volunteers there have had lots of conflict training, one of which is an ex bouncer! This club attracts the same crowd as @mosphere, this was not the case last year.

(Room 1 of the High School, usually at lunchtimes on Tuesdays)

The Crux is going well, since moving to the new larger room (room 1) we have seen new members. Two NYFC year outers (Becky and Danny) are currently helping with this, as well as Nik Gower. The Crux Media Team from National YFC came and take 3 'FilmSchool' workshops each day, and some assemblies in January. This week was made possible from the specific £800 grant secured by us over a year ago from the diocese. As a result of the Media Week we have seen the lunch club grow, and have created a Facebook Group called 'The Crux Fram'.