Vision

Why?

As a charity we aim to grow: hope for children, hope for families and hope in Jesus. We want to positively impact as many children, young people and their families as possible across the country. We want families to know their value, and experience hope where things can be difficult. We partner with local churches and want to enable families to experience community.

How does it work?

We believe the local church has resources which can positively impact the lives of families who often do not get the level of support that they need. The model works with each local clinic (which is its own charity) being a partnersip between itself, Growing Hope (national charity), and the local church.

The local church decides to partner with Growing Hope and set up a local Growing Hope charity. The new local charity goes through a coaching process with the Growing Hope team through which they gather trustees and appoint a Clinic Manager. The Clinic Manager running the local Growing Hope clinic could be any health professional who is qualified to work with children, young people and families and who has at least three years experience. This could be an Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, Speech and Language Therapist, Children’s Counsellor or similar. This local charity then runs free therapy clinics out of the church building for individuals in the local area.

Growing Hope (national staff team)

Coaching and support for set up. Model and step by step process for how to run a local Growing Hope.

All policy, procedures and strategy and insurance.

A national vision and support for what accessibility can look like in local churches.

Provision of £6,500 to help start the new charity.

Local church (church leader & staff team)

Joint appointment of the Clinic Manager as part of the staff team.

Office and clinic space and day to day facilities as needed.

Open arms to exploring how to enable a greater level of accessibility within church and releasing of the Clinic Manager as part of the church staff team to do this. This is often initially in partnership with kids church.

£7,500 of support a year to contribute to the running of the local charity.

Growing Hope local (trustee board)

Joint appointment of the Clinic Manager. Governance and oversight of this individual and local clinic decisions.

Direction to the Growing Hope (national) policy and governance to make sure this is adhered to.

Encouraging and enabling the Clinic Manager in their work on a Sunday to enable a greater level of accessibility within church.

Local fundraising which enables the rest of the money to be raised for the clinic to run. This involves running events, asking individuals to give regularly and applying for grants.

How is it sustainable?
We have a bold goal because we want to be innovative in our approach to healthcare. After the Growing Hope local clinic has raised funds and developed its supporter base in the first 12 months they then start giving back £500 a month to Growing Hope National, this means that further local clinics can be set up. We value generosity and we want to give away our learning as a national organisation in order that we can equip local churches to do the project rather than think about all the policy and procedure which the model provides. We also want to give away start up funding in order that setting up a Growing Hope clinic can be possible.

Each local clinic provides free therapy as we want every family to have access to the therapy provision that they need. This means that the model relies on gaining enough regular givers and grants in order that each local clinic is sustainable. This has worked in our initial local clinics and we anticipate it continuing to be successful. Where possible we also explore income generating strategies such as training and consulting.

How can my church get involved?

We would love to connect with you if your church is interested in exploring the possibility of setting up a Growing Hope clinic please contact us. We will then give you more detailed information about the partnership process and next steps.