What is J Gang?
A group of young people (8-16) who meet at St. Catherine with St. Chad's Church on Beechdale Estate in Walsall.

How did we begin?
In it's infancy the project had one leader and about fourteen young people meeting for 45 minutes, once a week. The youngsters approached the Church and asked to be included in what we do. We responded to their need.

What have we achieved?
The funding we have received has made an incredible difference to us. We now meet four/five times a week with 100 young people on our register; we have one part-time paid leader and eight volunteer adult helpers.

Do you want to know more?
Please read the following to find out more about the J Gang and what we do.

Why does the J Gang work?
Our project is centred on our young people, we value them as individuals and provide a non-judgemental and open setting in which they can develop. We encourage them to think things through and to make informed choices. On occasions when things go wrong they now feel they can be honest and admit mistakes which helps them think differently in the future. They feel they own the project because they decide what they want to do or learn and we enable them to get the most out of what they do.

Many of our members have benefited greatly from being part of J Gang. Some with behavioural problems have made great improvements. Others have tackled alcohol and drug problems. The local police and the housing association have noticed a big improvement in their behaviour on the estate.

Sunday Morning
We meet during the Sunday Eucharist and now have two groups who join in specially prepared activities using relevant materials for the two age groups. We now regularly have around twenty-five youngsters in Church. Many had never been inside a Church before and their parents do not attend with them. Most are happy for their youngster to come as long as they don't have to.

Midweek Session
This is a structured session, which includes activities such as crafts, drama and topic work usually with a Christian focus. The youngsters decide themes for the sessions. Several older members are taking leadership roles by encouraging and nurturing younger ones.

One of our local beat police officers regularly visits both this and the Over 11's sessions. Good relationships are developing.

Over 11's Social Session
Our Friday evening session is a time when the 11-16's can play music and either play games or have discussion about issues, which affects their lives. They often choose the latter and they like their youth leader to join in with them. Many of them don‘t have an adult at home with whom they can talk.

It was during one of these sessions that they identified a project they would like to work on, a motorbike project.

Residential Visit
We have now had two residential visits to Shepherds Buildings, a property owned by Lichfield Diocese near Bridgnorth. They have been good team building opportunities. WE had a theme for each one, the latter being 'relationships' and explored any issues and concerns they had. WE have continued this in our normal sessions. They have become quite mature in their handling of discussions and in their views.

Motorbike Project
We secured funding for this project, which was matched by Beechdale Community Housing Association who owns the Estate. We employ a tutor/mechanic to work with ten of our members on motorbike mechanics during twenty, two-hour sessions.

They will receive a certificate in motorbike mechanics and they will have the chance to race the moto-cross cycle at the local scrambling track.

Citizenship Training
Two of our members have been involved in a national youth training course on Citizenship. This was organised by an organisation with close links with our church. They have also joined with adults in regular meetings making a valuable contribution.

J Gang Certificate and Confirmation
We have just completed our first J Gang Certificate Course, which runs weekly after school during term time and covers the Christian faith, other faiths and social issues.

On completing the course youngsters can choose to be confirmed into the Church if they wish. Last year (2001) 30 youngsters received J Gang certificates and 18 were confirmed. We also baptised 12 members.