history | aims | values | people | churches

Mission Statement

NUC exists to provide a safe and welcoming environment where individuals are accepted and their emotional, social, spiritual, and practical needs are met, in order to develop a stronger community.

A brief history

The Newtownbreda United Churches project was formally established 2002. It grew out of meetings held over 18 months by some churches, initially to discuss providing a united youth club in our area. Eventually the group was formed by 4 churches. ( Cairnshill Methodist www.cairnshillmethodist.org, Knockbreda Church of Ireland, Newtownbreda Baptist www.newtownbredabaptist.com, Saintfield Road Presbyterian www.srpc.org.uk.) Also the focus swung towards the unchurched young people of our area, rather than the young people already participating in our programmes, to a detached work rather than a church-based work, planning to establish a drop-in centre aimed at mid-teens.

The project was formally launched following a presentation evening in January 2002, after which a Development Group was established. During 2002/3 a Youth Needs analysis report was undertaken based on questionnaires circulated to young people in 4 main second level schools in our area. This revealed that our perception was in line with that of young people, that the youth provision in Newtownbreda fell far short of expectations. Published in August 2003 under the title “Sumwhr 2 go…sumthing 2 do” it also included the reflection that statutory provision in our area was negligible.

In April 2004 we began a journey into the Connecting with Youth project. A Core group drew up the job description, advertised, interviewed  a number of applicants, and appointed a worker for this leadership training programme, so that Alyn Jones was able to start in mid-November, his appointment running through until summer 2006. Alyn worked towards the various targets set up under the programme. He completed an excellent foudation to the work to progress.

A new Project co-ordinator, Andrea Gibson was appointed in May 07 and she is trying to re-establish links with the agencies in the area and make contact with the young people who congregate on the streets. Her main remit is to continue those activities that the young people were involved in previously namely, Midnight Soccer, the Street Teams, and Pool Competitions. We are now involved in widening these activities, and when relationships are strengthened needs can then be more accurately identified.

What about the future?

We face a number of challenges: :-
We are 4 different churches, with 4 different structures, 4 different ethos, 4 different ways of working, 4 different types of programmes. For each of the churches the Newtownbreda United Churches project is an extra commitment.

By facing these challenges the four churches are successfully working in partnership and demonstrating the benefits of this model of working. In looking to the future we plan to focus on acquiring and developing our youth building and recruiting and training volunteers to support the work and achieve our agreed goals.