oxygennews

What’s in a ROOM?

It’s a cold October evening and a hooded group of young people are peering around the door of the newly opened Foyer at Kingston URC. The year is 2005 and this group’s tentative inquiry into what is inside is the first youth encounter with ROOM, an exciting joint Oxygen and KURC project that had just been launched. Over the course of the next few years dozens of young people passed through those self opening doors and on into ROOM, playing playstation, badminton, or board games as well as chatting to the many church and oxygen workers and volunteers who have been on hand to offer a listening ear. All of those who have come to ROOM have made a new friend in the church, finding an unconditional friendship and support that is unusual to the town centre. Many of them have moved on from Kingston, knowing that the church is interested in them.

Now after these great successes the time has come to rethink ROOM, numbers in recent months have been low, many of the students who came previously have now moved onto jobs or higher education. With no one coming we have taken the positive decision to put the project on pause, and instead of reopening ROOM in the spring, we will instead look to relook at how we K URC can best work with Oxygen to meet and engage with young people in the town centre.

So whilst we might say goodbye to the current ROOM we will remain to the there for the young people we have met. We will continue to hope and pray for them and then in time who knows what will be in the future ROOM?

New Identity at ID Hollyfield

Anna Nunn
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

It can be very hard to tell whether or not we are making an impact on the young people we work with. However, at ID Hollyfield, we have recently had some major breakthroughs.

Two of the girls we work with suffer from eating disorders, so they refuse to eat in front of the rest of the group. Last week both of them joined with the rest of us as we ate lunch together. The other girls noticed that they were joining in, and really encouraged them and celebrated with them.

We have 2 different cliques at ID, and mutual care and interest between the 2 groups is a rare and beautiful thing! Please thank God for the girls' willingness to eat, and for the new friendships that are forming between the groups. Pray that these things will continue after Christmas.

Later that week, a teacher at Hollyfield told us that people had noticed a change in the behaviour of some of the girls. C, who is normally very quiet and withdrawn has become far more confident, and R, who is often in trouble for being obnoxious and disruptive during lessons has become more cooperative. It's becoming clear that a number of the girls really want to make the most of their sessions with us at ID - to the point that M and R, who had been bunking off school that day, met us outside school, wanting to join us!

Thank God for the work he has been doing in these girls, and pray that they will continue to make progress and that they will be encouraged by the fact that they are successfully changing their reputations.

For Christmas, we are taking the girls to a spa, and then out for a meal in London. Please pray that the girls suffering from negative self image will be able to relax and enjoy their time at the spa, and that the girls with eating disorders will take part in the meal. Some of the girls do not seem to think that they have a problem, or that there is anything about their lives that they would like to change.

Pray that they'll have time to reflect on their lives over the Christmas holiday, and that God will make them aware of the negative aspects of their lives and their behaviour that they would like us to help them work on in the New Year.

thevent, December 2008

thevent dec 2008 016

Photos are now online from December’s Thevent held just last weekend . This thevent was the last one in the current format before we move to a smaller venue for the regular vent from Jan/ Feb onwards.

To draw the year to a close we saw some great musical performances, a fitting way to see out this, a project that has been running ever since the very first Oxygen Year. Altogether we must have done over 50 thevents in our time and met thousands of young people in the process. Now we look forward to a new venue for a bi-monthly thevent from early next year. So music lovers, watch this space!

Jack Petchey Support for Oxygen

Local Charity Oxygen has been awarded a grant of £6,850 by the Jack Petchey Foundation to help it establish a second Rm1 afterschool club at Hollyfield School in Surbiton.

Oxygen’s Rm1 was developed in response to the concerns raised by parents of year 7,8&9 pupils across Kingston Borough who, during a consultation said that their child had nowhere to go after school. Working with the Extended School Clusters, Children’s Services and Schools, Oxygen has developed Rm1 to provide a safe, caring and supportive after school club, where young people are encouraged to develop, learn about themselves and the wider community.

At Rm1 a wide range of young people are given a place to relax, undertake their homework as well engage in creative and participative activities such as sports, arts and multimedia project all designed to help them overcome the personal and social barriers they face and to build self esteem and social skills. Older school pupils and young people on a gap year with Oxygen provide most of the activities for the pupils at Rm1, acting a peer mentors, giving advice and support in the process.

Rm1 Hollyfield, also supported by Surestart is being delivered by Oxygen in partnership with the Kingston & Wimbledon YMCA. For more information on Rm1 contact Bex Murch on BMurch@kwymca.org.uk or via 020 8339 9329 or Richard James on richard@oxygen-online.org and 020 8547 0566

A German Christmas Story

Anne Pawlak
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

The lights are dimmed, puppets are lying ready: spotlights !

The story begins…………..Once upon a time in a land far, far away, one dark evening there were three youthworkers, who had all always wanted to be actors, directors, scriptwriters and storytellers - all at once. On this evening they decided to make their dreams come true. But there was a problem: the three enemies: wii, pool and football were strong and hostile forces, constantly trying to bring the youthworkers and their charges under their spell.

So the three decided to lure their charges to the safety of an enchanted room with the aid of their wonder-weapons: a sheet, a lamp and paper. The plan worked and after a few hours the play “The Prince and the Mystical Creatures”was performed- much stronger magic than the cunning enemies': they had to wait, disarmed and lonesome, in the dark, whilst the mystical shadow screen came to life.

And so they all lived happily ever after...at least to date.

Please pray for more good ideas and enthusiasm, to awaken the young people's interest and enthusiasm.

be blessed

Football Fighting

Andy Norris
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

I'd thought I would drop you an update. Last Wednesday we took the boys from coombe boys to goals, which for you oxygen readers who dont know what that is..its astroturf 5 aside football. Anyways!, just to say it went really well, the only downside was the boys were argued constantly, saying that they were rubbish and couldn't play together. Other than down side, other relationships between the boys really blossomed, conversations i have had in Rm1 this week and last week suggest there is a much deeper trust and understanding between the staff and pupils.

Could you please pray for a boy called C, that he wouldnt be so aggressive that he would open himself up and stop putting out a false image and instead really question who he is and is there more to life. He comes from a broken home with a father leading an questionable lifestyle, In addition we want to continue to take the boys to other activities, please do pray for us as we seek to make other, outside, realtionship building conversations

Ina bit
Andy xxxx