Bridge programme info for - Dignit y. hope. restoration - The Vineyard Church ...
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T h e v i n e ya r d
carecentre
presents
the
brid ge pro g r am m e
info for
sponsors
Dig n it y.
hope .
restorat ion.
We are hugely excited to announce the
launch of a brand-new Care Centre ministry...
the
bridge programme
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/bridge
WHY LAUNCH A NEW MINISTRY?
The Vineyard Care Centre currently runs the FEED food bank in
St Albans, along with other ministries such as KIT and REFUEL.
feed gives away emergency food and essential items to around
130 local families and individuals a week.
The number of food banks across the UK has significantly
grown over the past ‘austerity’ decade. When feed began
back in 2008, it was the sole food bank in the district. There
are now multiple outlets providing the same service. However,
what is not readily available is the ‘next step’ in supporting food
bank users to become food secure and move towards financial
independence. BRIDGE will fill a unique gap in service provision
and provide a valuable and much needed stepping-stone.
The Vineyard Care Centre’s vision has
always been to supp ort people in their
journey of dependency to independence;
enabling them to move forward to fulfil
their God given p otential.
What is the difference between BRIDGE and FEED? BRIDGE will keep the successful elements of our FEED ministry but operate quite differently. Namely, BRIDGE will be a membership programme that provides a package of additional personal support in key areas of people’s lives, supplying individuals with a much wider scope of wraparound care than food provision alone.
How will BRIDGE work?
Individuals will sign up for a BRIDGE membership lasting between
3–6 months, and will pay a small contribution each month as part
of their membership. As well as being able to ‘shop’ from a large
selection of quality food, the programme will assign to each member
a personal mentor who will provide one-to-one support in key areas
of their life. Other core support will include sourcing and funding
courses and workshops to help develop an individual’s particular
skillset; help to re-enter the work market; and vitally, an authentic
relationship that will build the mentee’s confidence, enabling them to
move forward.
social supermaRket ‘shop’
BRIDGE members will be able to choose from a wide selection of fresh and
packaged food, along with essential items, each week from our social supermarket
‘shop’. We are moving towards a social supermarket model as part of the Vineyard
Church’s wider remit to care for God’s Green Earth and reduce food wastage.
ONE-TO-ONE MENTORSHIP
Throughout their membership period, each BRIDGE member will have access to
their own mentor, who will provide support and guidance on their specific aims
and needs. The mentor will:
• Commit to weekly one-to-one sessions;
• Help contact agencies or source help with other life issues the member
wants to address;
• Help create a package of workshops, courses and relevant experience
tailored to the individual’s specific aims and needs;
• Provide other general support to see the BRIDGE member thrive.
Example: Greg was struggling with mounting debt as his rent seemed unmanageable. Greg’s mentor
helped him contact housing support, which provided him with specific advice on how best to tackle his
situation. Greg and his mentor also worked with CAP to come up with a manageable pathway out of debt.
training courses & workshops
The membership contribution will be used to source and fund bespoke external
courses and workshops for each individual, according to what they and their
mentor decide best meets their goals, eg IT skills course.
Example: Carlie was looking to get back into work. Carlie’s mentor arranged volunteering opportunities to help
her build the skills she needed to secure a job. Through BRIDGE, Carlie also attended a course which helped
her build an effective CV and secure employment in an area she wanted to work in.
pathway to employment
For members who are looking to re-enter the workplace or re-direct their vocation,
BRIDGE will help source relevant work training and courses to build upon their
experience and skillset. For some people, this may simply be a case of securing
a period of work experience to help rebuild confidence.
MEMBERSHIP
Dignity has always been one of the Vineyard Care Centre’s core values. We know
that some guests who visited the FEED food bank found it demeaning to take a
‘hand out’. We believe that by being able to access quality items whilst making a
financial contribution, people can more easily retain a sense of dignity.
How do people sign up to a BRIDGE
membership?
BRIDGE will accept applications through local and government
agency referrals (e.g. Social Services) or self-referrals that meet
our criteria.
• Agencies can complete an online referral form, found at
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/bridge-referral
• Individuals can come along to the Care Centre on a Monday
morning (10am-12pm) to meet our friendly team.
When does bridge start?
BRIDGE launches on Monday 24th May 2021.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO FEED?
FEED will continue to run as an emergency food bank, but will now
be partnering with the St Albans & District Foodbank - who are
part of the Trussell Trust. This means that FEED will now only offer
Trussell Trust pre-packaged boxes of food, and no longer grant
guests access to our shop to pick their own produce. Regular
FEED guests that do not want to join the bridge programme,
will therefore need to comply with Trussell Trust requirements.
Our Care Centre team remain just as committed to FEED guests
as ever, and are fully available to talk them through the process
and answer any questions, as well as help prepare current guests
to safely meet any challenges they may face as a result of the
change.
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/feed
FEED Origins
The FEED fo od bank began over 13 years ago, starting
with members of the St Albans Vineyard Church
gathering fo od and essential items to give away to
wherever it was needed in the lo cal c ommunit y. FEED
grew into a highly suc cessful ministry, partnering
with over a hundred lo cal churches, scho ols,
businesses, charities and organisations, to provide
thousands of people within the district who were
living in p overt y, with fo od and essential items.
What ministries will the Care
Centre continue to operate?
It’s important to say that the Vineyard Care Centre is introducing
the bridge programme because we believe this will better
help individuals and families journey towards independence, and
therefore regain autonomy over their lives. We are fully committed
to our current guests as well as ready to welcome new people
who will benefit from the BRIDGE programme.
The Care Centre will therefore continue to offer all of the support
that it usually does. We’ll continue to run our KIT & REFUEL
ministries as before, and we will still host our free café on a Monday
morning - open for anyone to come along to. A chat with one of
our team over a cup of tea, some breakfast or lunch, has always
been the first step to building a sense of trust and community.
We’ll also continue to host our free drop-in clinics, where people
can find help for debt management, family legal advice, parenting
support, mental health, housing advice, and lots more.
This means, even if former FEED guests aren’t using the new
food bank model, they can still stay in touch with us and use all
of the other services we provide. Plus, it means we get to expand
our reach by welcoming new guests that want to access these
drop-in clinics and services, but aren’t necessarily a BRIDGE
member or using the FEED food bank.
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/carecentre
CARE CENTRE Fund (formerly FEED Fund)
Barclays Bank
Sort Code: 20-74-09
The Care Centre seeks to fill the gap Account
s in No: 00634913
Account Name:
service provision and Vineyard Christian
supp ort, Fellowship
rather than of St Albans
duplicate what already exists.
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/carecentrefund
What DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU -
ONE OF OUR KEY sponsorS?
Although we are outsourcing the emergency food bank, we
continue to rely on your generous donations of food and
financial support to fund and fill our social supermarket shop
for BRIDGE members - many of whom will have previously
been FEED guests.
We will also continue to provide the same service to every
guest who currently uses the Vineyard Care Centre: a friendly
café offering free breakfast and lunch, drop-in clinics and
support groups, and the same essential family support. We
will continue to work closely with government services (such
as the Family Centre and Social Services), as well as our KIT
and REFUel ministries. We are also committed to training
and managing the same Care Centre volunteer team to the
same high standard.
In addition to our usual costs, we are now offering a host of
new services and support through our BRIDGE programme.
That means your continuing support is now as important as
ever!
what do we need from you?
We need you to continue your generous donations of food,
gift items and financial support. Your food donations will
ensure our social supermarket shop is stocked for BRIDGE
members (formerly FEED guests); and your financial gifts
- that resource essential Care Centre ministries like KIT,
REFUEL & BRIDGE - should continue to be directed to the
Care Centre Fund (formerly FEED Fund).
Establishing a mentorship scheme, facilitating one-to-one
sessions, securing quality training provisions and increasing
our amazing base of volunteers is a tall order! But we are
confident that with your continued support and commitment,
we can build on what we’ve already achieved and successfully
develop this much needed BRIDGE ministry.
REVIEWING THE BRIDGE MODEL
We expect to successfully scale the BRIDGE model over
the next three years. We foresee our Care Centre guest
demographic will change, partly due to new BRIDGE
programme, but also due to the forecasted Covid pandemic
financial fallout - and the large number of individuals and
families that will impact. We expect the bridge model to
enable us to intervene with those finding themselves in need
before they reach crisis point and are forced to use a food
bank.
How will BRIDGE impact
the wider world?
The Vineyard Care Centre is already using our large guest
base and extensive involvement in this field to provide valuable
statistics and feedback to government and research bodies.
With the launch of BRIDGE, we will continue to feedback
quantitative and qualitative data to local and national agencies,
helping to better inform them in their policy making decisions.
Part of the Vineyard Church’s wider remit, along with serving
the under-represented and those living in poverty, is the call
to responsibly steward God’s Green Earth. Part of intelligently
stewarding this planet’s resources and environment involves
reducing the huge food wastage that we currently see.
Although not BRIDGE’s primary goal, this is an important
secondary objective. The Care Centre is therefore currently
working with food agency partners to address the large-scale
problem of food wastage, and how we can contribute towards
reducing that. A longer-term goal for the Care Centre’s BRIDGE
programme is to partner with local community gardens to
grow and donate fresh organic produce to BRIDGE.THANK YOU!
We want to take this opp ortunit y to once again,
express our huge sense of gratitude to you for
supp orting the work we d o here at the Vineyard
Care Centre. We lo ok forward to c ontinuing our
rel ationship with you as we l aunch this unique and
exciting brid ge ministry, that we hope and pray will
bring l asting change to people’s lives.th e
brid ge pro g r am m e
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/bridge
launches
Monday 24TH May 2021
Dig n it y.
hope .
restorat ion .
T H E V I N E YA R D
carecentre
7 Brick Knoll Park, St Albans, AL1 5UG | 01727 812765
carecentre@thevineyardchurch.co.uk
www.thevineyardchurch.co.uk/carecentre
Registered in England & Wales 3445897 Registered Charity No 1066846You can also read
