Cambridge and District Youth for Christ
In September 2021 we moved into a new city centre shop front space which St Andrews Street Baptist Church have kindly gifted us use of for at least 3 years. Our plans are for this to be the flagship for our new wellbeing project, with a youth drop in café, and life skills and wellbeing workshops alongside faith exploration opportunities. Our vision for the space is to create a safe space for young people in Cambridge and the surrounding area, which promotes positive well-being, builds relationships, and shares the love of Jesus.
For this to happen there is building work which needs to be done to make the space accessible and fit for purpose. Incredibly, the church, in their generosity, have also agreed to fund these works. It is a 12-week project which should be complete by December this year.
I have spent a lot of time recently speaking to local businesses, making grant applications and approaching local youth service providers and stakeholders to share the vision of the project and raise funds. God has been so good, and the response has been amazing. We have been donated a kitchen from a local independent shop, sofa’s from Sofology and laptops, desktop computers and tablets from a local tech charity. We have also raised £26,500 towards the project and are hoping to employ a project manager for the space.
Currently, we have several grant applications being considered by trust funds so please do pray for positive outcomes from those. As the building works are underway, please pray for smooth and swift building works which run to time. Over the course of this term, I will also be leading the team to decorate and furnish the space, recruit volunteers, plan opening events and put policies and procedures in place. Please do pray for us in this planning and preparation phase of the project. We would also love prayers for young people to hear about the space, come along and enjoy spending time here when we open in January.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It is hugely appreciated and enables me to continue pursuing God and His kingdom for young people in Cambridge.
Mark Watson
Director of Ministry - Cambridge and District Youth for Christ
