Community engagement and volunteers
Church buildings stand at the centre of our communities, their presence a reminder of how your work reaches beyond those who attend the Sunday service. Ongoing, good engagement with your community is critical to flourishing mission and to broadening the network of people who can actively care for your building and churchyard. It is also a vital component of grant funding applications and Faculty applications for any changes to the church building.
Understanding your community is key to informing your Mission Action Plan, so try to work across your Mission Community when it comes to communication, engagement and volunteering. You will get more out of these processes by working together than in isolation as parishes.
Top tips (see below for more information on each of these)
|
Raise awareness – be visible
In our modern world, people crave connectedness. Get the message out there that the church is for everyone by embedding regular communication in your action plan.
- Make sure your noticeboard is attractive and up to date.
- Get good news stories in the local press and on social media.
- Reiterate your key messages, based on your Mission Community vision.
- Have a programme of events and festivals – and make sure everyone knows about them.
The Church of England Digital Labs is a fantastic resource with ‘how to’ guides including:
- Making the most of AChurchNearYou.com
- Using Canva for accessible graphic design
- Connecting with social media
Be open and welcoming
Be a place where people can come and find hospitality. Your church building might be the only public building left in your community. Offering hospitality might involve a weekly community café, a monthly lunch, or a refreshment station in church building for visitors.
 |
Information on welcoming visitors to your church |
Find out about ‘Places of welcome’, a network of community groups providing their neighbourhoods with places where all people feel safe to connect, belong and get involved, here.
Demonstrate your importance to the community
The National Churches Trust research The House of Good found that churches provide essential services for communities. They used Government methodology to measure the value of all these services to the country – showing that churches provide £55 billion of social benefit to the UK every year. Their House of Good: Local Calculator works out the social, economic and wellbeing value of your church by using information taken from questions about activities at your building. The calculator is free and takes around 30 minutes to complete – click here.
Community audits
Even if your church is doing lots in the community, it’s a good idea to review your engagement on a periodic basis. A community audit is about understanding who makes up your community, what is already available in your area, and what is needed (i.e. what needs you can step in to fill).
This should be wider than your congregation – you want to find out all about the people you don’t know yet.
Sources for building a profile of your community:
- Parish census and deprivation dashboards
- Church Urban Fund Look Up Tool
- Office for National Statistics Explore Local Statistics
Information to gather:
- What does the community already have?
- What services are currently provided?
- What services are missing?
- Are there any plans for changes in your local area e.g. new housing?
- What do you already provide?
- What groups already use your church building?
Talk to people – find out:
- What do they think of existing services?
- What ideas do they have?
Some ideas for consultation:
- Host an open day – make it interactive with sticky notes and display boards.
- Have a drop in session in conjunction with the village hall or shop – make it a social event as well as an opportunity for research.
- Hold a community history event in conjunction with the local history group.
- Have a family event – this could involve a fun activity, followed by refreshments and a chance to find out about what parents want.
Where might you be able to make a difference? Areas could include:
- Bereavement care
- Friendship and tackling loneliness
- Parenting support
- Education and training
- Employability
- Personal development
- Financial assistance
- Food aid
- Wellbeing through nature
- Social enterprise
- Multi-generational learning and fun events
Further information is available in:
- ‘Crossing the threshold’ toolkit (Chapter 2: Undertaking a community audit and consulting with the community)
- The Church Urban Fund ‘Growing good course’
- Cinnamon Network ‘How to perform a community audit’
- Growing the Rural Church community consultation toolkit
- Community Places ‘Guide to engagement methods’
- Church of England ‘Community action’ guide
Build partnerships
Work with the village hall, local schools, local charities, shops and cafes, town/parish and district councillors, the GP surgery, other faith groups etc. This will help you reach new people as well as avoiding duplication and competition.
- Are there activities and events you can run in partnership? Examples are: foodbanks, memory cafes, social prescribing, forest school, singing groups, art exhibitions, history exhibitions, life skills (managing money, looking for work etc).
- Are there groups looking for a venue that you could provide?
Celebrate your church building and its history
Our church buildings and churchyards represent hundreds of years of shared history. Many are some of the most important historic buildings open to the public. They have immense value as repositories of art and architecture.
Many people find your church building and churchyard attractive and interesting, regardless of faith. By recognising this, we open opportunities to bring more people through the door – where they can learn about faith and where they can make a practical contribution to the upkeep of the building and churchyard.
Build capacity
Relying on the same, small group of people isn’t sustainable in the long term. Getting more people involved can bring vital new skills, knowledge and experience to a project. Recruiting to PCC sub-committees or other voluntary groups is a great way to involve people who have a valuable contribution to make, but don’t meet the criteria or time commitment for being formally involved in the PCC.
Volunteers
Many hands make light work! There are lots of different tasks that volunteers can help with. Recruiting a pool of volunteers helps to ensure you aren’t relying on the same people, and helps to raise awareness about the presence of the church in the community.
Things to consider:
- What do you need help with? People are more likely to sign up to a specific role/task, with an idea of how much time would be involved. Volunteer roles you could recruit to include: opening and welcoming; cleaning and gardening; researching history; hosting guided tours, fundraising, updating your website, serving refreshments…
- How will you communicate with your volunteers?
- How will you welcome and train new volunteers?
- How will your volunteers have a say?
- How will you recognise and thank your volunteers?
- Do you need to sort out any administrative and legal issues such as safeguarding, health & safety and insurance?
If you have a lot of volunteers, you may find it helpful to have a volunteer policy.
How to find volunteers:
- Via your existing volunteers.
- Word of mouth.
- A local volunteer centre.
- Local schools, colleges or universities.
- Volunteer databases e.g. Devon Connect.
- Posters
- Articles in local newspapers or news sites.
- Your website and/or social media.
The Church Urban Fund ‘Working well with volunteers’ guide includes tips for writing a volunteer policy and links to same volunteer role descriptions.
Ask for help
If your church is struggling to be sustainable, talk to your community at an early stage. Let them know you need help, explain how your church building is funded and what the gap is between income and expenditure. Be honest and you might be pleasantly surprised about how many people want to help.
Useful websites for more information, resources and support
