On 20th January 2008, James Vaughton launched Hope in Our Schools. The vision was to use the year of ‘Hope 08’ to raise awareness of the mission need within Bath Secondary Schools, increase prayer support of the schools and raise the funds to employ a full-time worker to lead the mission to make a Christian difference in our schools. During the last year and a half James has visited local churches to make the appeal as we seek to reach the necessary total to make this a sustainable mission. To help facilitate the work and provide accountability during 2008 we established a schools work steering group, which currently includes former teacher, Julie Campbell, Diocesan Youth Officer Tony Cook and James our Director.

During 2008 and we raised the necessary funds to employ our full-time Schools Work Manager, thanks to the support of individuals, local churches, and other organisations who felt that they wanted to support the vision. The recruitment process started in Autumn 2008, concluding with the interviews and appointment of Kat Lazenby to the post almost a year after the launch on 21st January 2009! Kat started work on 2nd March 2009 and has spent the last few months getting involved in what we are already doing in schools, reviewing the work and looking to create a strategy for work from September 2009. This has been an exciting journey as we have seen new opportunities open up for Bath YFC to go into schools. We are planning to launch new after school projects with the aim of running five after school pieces of work each week. Furthermore Kat will be getting involved in mentoring and running schools assemblies. Strategically Bath YFC is looking to partner local churches in all we do so as to help build relationships between the local community, local young people, local school and local church. Once projects are confirmed we will make sure the details are available on this website in the ‘Schools Work’ section.

We are continuing to work on building a sustainable fund to support this work in the long-term so that we can build a legacy of mission in our schools, to take good news and bring transformation in the lives of young people. If this is going to happen it will take people from across the city supporting it so we are asking that 400 people commit to £5 per month. If you already support us but want to increase your giving by just £5 per month then either fill out the form (link below) or notify your bank that you would like to increase your giving and then notify us. If you would like to join us on this exciting development of the mission of Bath YFC then please do get in touch and we can make sure that you receive our termly ‘Hope in Our Schools’ newsletter. Feel free to contact us with any questions on 01225 336055 or click here to emai. Thank you!

Click here to download the Hope In Our Schools Response Form (PDF)