A CHARITY that provides free therapy for children and young people with additional needs has been awarded £600,000 by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB).
A press release issued by Church House on Thursday said that, through the three-year programme, more than 800 churches would “receive support to welcome children and young people with additional needs to their worship services”. The SMMIB award represents a significant investment for the charity, exceeding its total annual income in 2024 of £520,217.
Growing Hope was founded by Dr Naomi Fox, a children’s occupational therapist, in 2017, with the establishment of the first clinic set up in partnership with a local church: King’s Cross Church. (Interview, 23 July 2021). There are now clinics in eight other churches offering services including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and counselling. The charity aims to have 20 such clinics by 2030. Referrals are accepted from anyone who has gained consent from the child’s primary caregiver and the charity also offers the “When dreams change” course for parents of children with additional needs.
The award from the SMMIB comes under the Partnerships Funding stream, set up to “addresses a gap or barrier that currently inhibits delivery of the Church’s Vision and Strategy”. A total of £46.9 million is to be allocated in the current triennium.
The £600,000 is intended to fund the launch of a programme to extend the Growing Hope’s accessibility training to 375 churches. In addition, 475 churches will explore the Growing Hope Accessibility Award, which helps churches to indicate that they are ready to welcome families with a range of needs. As of 2024, ten such awards had been given. A survey of 87 parents of children and young people with additional needs who identify as Christian, carried out by the charity, found that 88 per cent of said that attending church was currently or had previously been a challenge.
The training, designed by Dr Fox, involves “guidance on cultural and perception shifts of children’s ‘behaviour’ in congregations, sensory-aware modifications to the environment and service, and structural or practical change to buildings — many of which are at little or zero cost. It takes into consideration the practical constraints of ancient buildings, heritage preservation requirements and church patterns of worship and teaching.”
Among the nine churches offering a clinic, and having received accessibility training, is St James the Great, Downley, in High Wycombe. Since the launch of a Messy Church with accessibility features including visual schedules, multi-sensory activities and movement breaks, the church, which previously had no children in its congregation, welcomes six families who previously had no connection with the church. The church also provides sensory tents, fidget toys and ear defenders at Sunday services.
Among the churches that have received an Accessibility Award is St Luke’s, Downham in south east London. Displaying this on the church website prompted an inquiry from a local family “eager to have their two children with significant additional needs baptised, but worried that they may find the church environment too formal”, the Church House press release said. Two years later, the family are still attending.
“Most churches that have engaged with Growing Hope report [are] welcoming five to ten new families into their worshipping community, with some commenting that every family that has joined since includes someone with additional needs,” according to the press release.
The new funded project, designed with diocesan disability advisers, will be piloted by Growing Hope with a group of churches in five dioceses.
Growing Hope’s service are available to all. Its website states: “We believe that Jesus offers hope to everyone and that he knows and loves each of us; our therapists are motivated by this.” Each clinic manager also serves as part of the church’s staff team on Sunday mornings and works to “enable a greater level of accessibility within church”. Therapists will always offer to pray for the child and their carer at each session.
In 2021, it received a grant of £258,000 grant from the Allchurches Trust (News, 7 May 2021).
