http://www.ranktrust.org
The Faculty has secured funding from the Joseph Rank Trust (under their Active Faith, Active Sports initiative) to provide a series of bursaries for new sports-based projects in church, para-church and community settings. The initiative aims to encourage sports mission/ministry by offering grants to support the employment of project workers. It is a stipulation of the initiative that appointed personnel complete the MA in Sport and Christian Outreach at UoG within the 5-year funding period. Examples of current projects are as follows:
Youth for Christ (YfC): Kick Academy Officer
Funding was granted for a Youth for Christ Regional Sports Coordinator in Birmingham. This role is designed to build partnerships with churches, schools and youth work organisations already developed through Birmingham YfC. The appointee will act as the West Midlands Regional Coordinator of all Kick (sports) activities, but the primary concern will be the use of the Kick Academy as a resource to be used by local churches and schools to connect with young people in the area. Within the initial 5 years of the project YfC aim to deliver 200 Kick Academy projects with over 50 churches and schools throughout the West Midlands.
PSALMS (Painswick and Stroud Area Local Ministries): Two Strategic Youth Ministers
Following a successful initial bid by PSALMS for the funding of a Strategic Sports Minister to influence and support existing church-based youth work and to offer sports ministry within the Diocese of Gloucester, additional funding was granted to accommodate an extension of their sports ministry activities to churches in the Cirencester and Tetbury deaneries.
Ambassadors in Sport (AIS): Director of Church-Based Community Football Outreach in London
Following a two-year feasibility/pilot programme into the establishment of football outreach work in London (in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games), funding was granted for AIS to extend the scope and remit of their operations to all 33 London boroughs by way of a programme of ‘church-based community football’. The project, and its associated events, will be located within local churches in each community.