Children & Youth work grants
Our small grants fund is one way that the Children’s and Youth Work Committee supports activities and experiences for children and youth as well as the training of existing and potential children and youth workers.
This year, to help churches resume or start up activities for children, a grant of either £50 or £100 is also available to support churches running holiday clubs.
The Children’s and Youth Work Committee is there to support children and youth activities and the training of existing and potential children and youth workers. This grant can support an individual’s participation in an activity.
Grants can be made towards the cost of attendance, required materials and/or travel. The type of activities which might warrant support include:
- Attendance at children’s or URC youth activity at local church, Synod or Assembly level;
- Training events for existing or potential children and/or youth workers involved in either running or development of children and youth work activities within the United Reformed Church or ecumenically;
- Participation in URC International exchanges, visits, etc or other activities for the development of the individual;
- A child or young person attending events which will help them grow in their Christian faith.
The Children’s and Youth Work Committee may not be able to fund all requests and thus cannot guarantee that every request will be successful. Applications will be looked at more favourably if the applicant has done some fundraising and/or received some other funding towards the cost of the trip (ie from the local church, Synod, local community).
The Children’s and Youth Work Committee will also not award to the same person two years running and priority would be given to a person that has not received before.
We would normally give up to 50% of the overall cost and up to:
- £200 for an activity in the UK;
- £350 for an activity in the European Region;
- £500 for an activity in the rest of the world.
but it may be less than this depending on the overall costs.
No more than £500 per person will be awarded to an individual for any one grant. Individual applications from members of the same group will be considered as a group application (e.g. a group of young people from one local church attending an event together) and should be submitted using the group application form.
Applicants for this grant must be associated with a United Reformed Church and have the backing of their church leadership. We request a referee to support your application. Please allow sufficient time for us to contact your referee before your claim is considered. With this in mind, please apply at least six weeks before the event.
If you are successful, following your attendance at the event we request that you submit a report, which could be written and illustrated with photographs or PowerPoint presentation or in some other media, to the Children’s and Youth Work Office which may be published on the website.
Individuals may also apply through their synods for a discipleship development grant of up to £200 for training and opportunities that meet the discipleship development criteria. Please contact your synod CYW representative for more details.
Application forms
- Application form for individuals (PDF | 187kb)
- Support reference form (individual applications) (PDF | 132kb)
If you open these with Adobe Reader rather than in your web browser, you can fill them in, save them and email them back to us without needing to print, scan or post them.
The new discipleship-based small grant fund for Children’s and Youth Work is part of the Discipleship Development Fund which is intended to contribute to the development of lay people of all ages . This means the purposes for which it can be used are as broad as can be generated by creativity and vocation, in line with the aims of the URC’s Discipleship Development Strategy (DDS), which are to equip the people of the United Reformed Church to:
- Create opportunities for everyone to encounter the living God, whether they already identify themselves as followers of Christ or not
- Encourage everyone in their prayer life and relationship with God to enable them to live as disciples of Jesus
- Encourage everyone to make the most of education opportunities that are relevant and appropriate for them in their discipleship journey (eg events, conferences, courses, resources).
These awards are fundamentally aimed at Lay Discipleship Development and not intended to have mission as their main focus and priority. Groups and can apply for a Mission Enabling grant of up to £1000 (or £6,000 over 3 years) https://urc.org.uk/your-church/mission-enabling-fund/ or can contact [email protected] to enquire about other sources of funding for small-scale mission-focussed projects and activities.
The groups small grants fund would normally give up to 50% of the overall cost and up to:
- £350 for a group activity in the UK;
- £500 for a group activity in the European Region;
- £1000 for a group activity in the rest of the world.
Applicants for this grant must be associated with a United Reformed Church and have the backing of their church leadership. You will see on the application form that we request a referee to support your application. Please allow sufficient time for us to contact your referee before your claim is considered. With this in mind, please apply at least six weeks and no less before the event
If you are successful, following your attendance at the event we request that you submit a report, which could be written and illustrated with photographs or PowerPoint presentation or in some other media, to the Children’s and Youth Work Office which may be published on the website.
- Application form for groups (PDF | 175kb)
- Support reference form (all group applications) (PDF | 132kb)
A note on completing the application forms
If you open these with Adobe Reader rather than in your web browser, you can fill them in, save them and email them back to us without needing to print, scan or post them.
To support churches in running holiday clubs, the Children’s and Youth Work committee offer a grant of either £50 or £100 towards the costs of resources, snacks, decorations, equipment etc. Those who receive a grant will be asked to report back with a story about their holiday club and, where possible, photographs which can be shared more widely to encourage others. Please note that this grant cannot be applied for over more than three consecutive years or more than once within the same year.
A note on completing the application form
If you open the form with Adobe Reader rather than in your web browser, you can fill them in, save it and email it back to us without needing to print, scan or post them.
Related content
Grants & funding opportunities
Find out about the grants and funding opportunities the URC offers churches, community groups and individuals