Introducing Quaker Life
Our dispersed team now has members within grasp of every Quaker meeting in Britain. It connects with Quaker communities of all shapes and sizes.
Support for Quaker communities is delivered in a variety of ways. The national network of Development Workers now reaches Quaker communities in a way that was not possible for a team based in one place. The team offers support in these ways.
Development work
Delivering the support to Quakers is done by the network of Development Workers who, amongst other things, are a point of contact for Friends locally. They offer support to Quaker communities in many ways including:
- listening, encouraging and reassuring
- connecting Friends with people and resources
- signposting to other BYM and Woodbrooke services
- facilitating sessions or running pieces of work on a variety of themes
- helping to review existing activities or processes
- assisting with major projects.
The support offered helps us to become the Society of Friends that we envisioned in Our Faith in the Future.
Local Development Workers
Are available to individuals, local Quaker meetings, area meetings, and other Quaker groups. Their role is to help Quaker communities thrive by being available to Friends across the breadth of Quaker activity and experience. There are 15 Local Development Workers, each with a geographical patch that they are responsible for supporting.
Children and Youth Development Workers
Funded locally and employed by Britain Yearly Meeting this work is regional and often in similar patches to local development work. They work with local Friends to offer events and activities for children and young people to build community effectively. Their work helps to promote participation among different age groups and empower Quaker communities to engage with and respond more readily to younger people. We expect that there will not be more that four Children and Youth Development Workers at any one time.
Dedicated work areas
To support Quaker Life's development work there are some dedicated areas of the work that are done by specific workers or the team leaders. All the work is ably supported by our wonderful support and admin post-holders.
Prison chaplains
There is a dedicated role supporting the Quaker Prison Chaplains Committee. They act as secretary to the committee and as a liaison with the Government Department of Justice to ensure that Prison Chaplains are vetted for going into prison. The role is also works with our partners at Woodbrooke to deliver chaplaincy training and an annual conference.
For prison chaplain support contact: chaplainsupport@quaker.org.uk
Property Management Advice
New to post there is a Property Management Adviser who works part time in Quaker Life and part for BYM properties in the Facilities team. This is a support role for Quaker communities, often at area meeting level giving advice and helping meetings think about and engage with property issues. The post-holder supports the activities of Friends Trusts Limited, an independent body which holds legal ownership of most Quaker property.
For property support contact: friendstrusts@quaker.org.uk
Team leader responsibilities
To ensure that all the other areas of our Quaker life and experience are covered the Team Leaders have a set of responsibilities that fall within the following categories:
- Youth Children & Families
- Children & Youth Development Work
- Spiritual Nurture
- Quaker Community
- Witness and Collaboration
- Local and Area Governance