Sixth month report

It has been an exciting and speedy start for StreetSpace. Whilst we expected demand to be high, based on our conversations and research, we could not have anticipated the level we encountered. Since starting full time in the role in April, nine projects have been established or formally linked with StreetSpace1 and we have another 31 enquiries to follow up. In addition to this a presence at the Greenbelt festival over the August bank holiday has generated further enquiries.

Initially we needed to develop an appropriate structure to respond to the diversity of requests for support. This ranged from projects wanting to set up distinct StreetSpace projects, projects wanting partnerships to start detached work in their area and projects wanting missional coaching and advice. Therefore, as well as the license agreement process which is used for new StreetSpace projects and partnerships, we developed StreetSpace Alongside where groups can become part of the network and gain support at the level they need. It is anticipated that around 20 workers will come together for our first gathering as a network in March 2011 however funding is still being sought to facilitate this.

Initially work needed to be done on shaping the policies and paperwork from the local pilot projects to service the national organisation. Training programmes were developed, and publicity and web presence were established. StreetSpace was then formally launched at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity on June 23rd 2010. The work since then has been following up project enquiries, supporting the new emerging projects and seeking to develop some strategic national links with denominations and organisations. This has proved effective with good links with 3 of the main denominations established and The Church Urban Fund has provided a £5000 bursary to help projects in marginalized communities to access StreetSpace.

In July 2010 the FYT team met together to write a full training programme for StreetSpace, this is currently being edited and will be available to projects in their second year with StreetSpace. The skills and expertise we are developing with local project leaders will be disseminated into the wider local teams. The groundwork put into shaping and structuring StreetSpace has also paid dividends. It has enabled us to respond quickly and effectively to local needs. Our Southsea project Coolbox went from enquiry to starting contact with young people in just under 8 weeks and they are now in contact with good numbers young people. Through the local projects we are already coming into contact with huge numbers of young people and hopefully through our support and monitoring processes this work will be about quality engagement that goes beyond headline statistics.

1 See map for spread of projects and localities