ChurchWorks
Our Story
The ChurchWorks Commission was launched in October 2021 to bring together senior leaders from 15 denominations across the UK to explore the Church’s role in national Covid recovery. It was the natural next step for YourNeighbour.org which united churches to support their communities through the Covid-19 pandemic. Working Groups with Christian leaders and charity experts on our priority themes were set up to identify what people were already doing and to explore the Church’s unique role and contribution to national Covid recovery.
During the Commissioner’s first-ever meeting, Commissioners, led by the Chair, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, identified some key priorities for us to work on: wellbeing, support for vulnerable families, and social isolation. The Commission agreed that our work should be targeted towards those most affected by the pandemic: young people, people of colour and disadvantaged communities.
The Commissioners represent the following denominations and umbrella organisations:
Church of England
Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales
The Methodist Church
The Salvation Army
Baptist Union of Great Britain
Assemblies of God
Evangelical Alliance
Jesus House/Reformed Christian Church of God
Churches Together in England
Coptic Orthodox Church/British Orthodox Church
Church of God of Prophecy
New Testament Church of God
Elim
Pioneer
The inaugural ChurchWorks Summit took place online on 11 January 2022, bringing together more than 80 people representing church leaders, Christian organisations, and government, to have strategic discussions about the role of the Church in Covid recovery. Specifically they sought to identify specific and concrete opportunities for collaboration between Church and government to accelerate recovery in our most disadvantaged communities.
In August 2022, following a meeting with church and community leaders on how to coordinate a response to the cost-of-living crisis this winter, the Warm Welcome Campaign was set up. Now led by a wide range of partners from community organisations, libraries, churches, businesses and other faith groups, the campaign has created a network of over 7,000 registered free, warm, welcoming, and safe spaces for people to go to who struggled to heat their homes.
The November 2022 Summit was ChurchWorks’ first in-person event. Over 100 church leaders, commissioners, government leaders and member charities gathered in Westminster Central Hall to discuss how collaboration can take place across the three different ChurchWorks priority areas. The day opened with an address from Baroness Scott, Faith Minister, which was followed by updates, reflections and discussions from member charities and commissioners. Finally a cross-party discussion with Stephen Timms MP, Tim Farron MP, Danny Kruger MP and Lord Wei on the value of the church in public life was facilitated by Commissioner, Alicia Edmund.
Building on these early successes, in May 2023 we brought together 250 church leaders, 20 major Christian mental health and wellbeing organisations, NHS leaders and other key stakeholders for the ChurchWorks for Wellbeing Conference. The conference was an opportunity for people to engage in a uniquely influential space, get connected with hundreds of other church and ministry leaders from around the country and be equipped to return home with tools to enable them to respond to the mental health crisis.
Our work: Wellbeing
The mental health crisis in the UK continues to affect the most vulnerable people in our communities.
With over 61,000 churches in England already delivering tens of thousands of community projects, we believe churches have a key role to play in partnering with the NHS to improve wellbeing across the country.
Churches also have specific assets to offer:
Strong community links
Skill in welcoming and befriending
Reduced stigma for those who feel nervous about statutory services
Deeper access to certain communities (evidenced by recent church-state partnerships around vaccination)
Community-focused physical space
ChurchWorks for Wellbeing aims to enable churches to better serve their communities, by working with central government and regional healthcare providers across England, to improve the mental health and wellbeing of individuals and families. We are doing this through pilot projects, research initiatives, set piece events and training webinars as well as wider communications and influencing efforts.
Children and Families
Over the first 18 months of the ChurchWorks Commission, its Commissioners, members and secretariat have been able to develop strong relationships across the sector, within government and the National Centre for Family Hubs. Just one example comes from dialogue with the government’s Early Years Adviser, Dame Andrea Leadsom, in 2022. She was unequivocal in her encouragement that engaging churches to co-design local Family Hubs with the relevant Local Authority is integral to the model. These relationships have provided a number of opportunities for the Commission, with increased capacity a vital component to support delivery of these opportunities.
Our work currently centres around four different activities to support the successful delivery of Family Hubs:
Continuing to work with the National Centre for Family Hubs. We have worked with NCFH to gather a key group of faith leaders together regularly to co-design faith groups’ engagement with Family Hubs. This session is open to all faith leaders; contact us to sign up.
Identifying 'warm' Local Authorities to work with. The National Centre for Family Hubs has invited any local authorities who are interested in working with faith groups to get in touch with us.
Informing and inspiring individual churches to engage with their local Family Hub. We ran a webinar on September 22nd in collaboration with the Gather Movement and the National Centre for Family Hubs to inform and inspire over 120 church leaders to engage with their local Family Hub team. Watch the webinar here for more information and to find out how to access further resources.
Working with existing Christian family support agencies to identify possible pilot locations. We have facilitated discussion among ChurchWorks members to articulate that an effective Family Hubs pilot might involve. Three key areas for partnership have been articulated:
Churches and faith groups as Connected Partners of Family Hubs provision in terms of signposting and referral
Church as Co-hosts of Family Hubs provision through the use of their buildings
Churches as Commissioned Partners of Family Hubs either through running specific services for the Hubor to use their premises as the 'spoke' of the 'hub'
You can learn more and follow the Commission’s work via: https://www.churchworks.org.uk/