Forge youth: a Short History

Forge Youth began in 2007 led by Rick Atkinson at St Thomas Philadelphia and grew significantly as Kings’ Centre and St Thomas Philadelphia became one church.

As both the churches wanted to serve the wider city and not just their geographical area, we found that we were working with young people from many different backgrounds and many different experiences of faith. God started moving amongst the young people and we saw him break into many young people’s lives yet something wasn’t quite working. It seemed that no matter how big or how professional we made the youth events that we were running, we never quite seemed to scratch where people were itching.

Some people found that there wasn’t enough prayer, some people just wanted to run around, some people found the music too rocky and some people said it was too hip-hop! We also found that leaders were too busy running events to actually hang out with the young people – which was why we started in the first place!

Then we had a thought – why are we trying to make it big when we could make it good?

Communities

We decided to re-think our approach. Instead of having big events that everyone attended, we decided to launch a network of youth projects, each one shaped to fit the community it was working with. This meant that each of the leaders could build real relationships with the young people and they would notice when they weren’t there! It also meant that the young people themselves could shape their youth work – let it look like they wanted it to and serve them how they needed.

Explosion

This was a great season of growth for Forge and in 2009 we were generously given external funding that allowed us to take on 5 extra staff members, and as you’d expect, Forge grew significantly! We started planting projects all over the city, reaching people where they were at and allowing their youth workers to really be part of their lives. We had schools projects, detached projects, youth clubs, football teams and loads more all over Sheffield, we were working with hundreds of young people!

Times of Change

In 2010 Rich moved onto and Dan Brown stepped up to lead Forge Youth. This was an exciting but scary time of transition, as not only due to leadership change but because during the financial crisis at the time we also lost the money that we had been receiving to pay the staff – what did God have in store for us next?

Back to basics

We were left with a choice, did we walk away and go and find a job? Or stay, living by faith, and fight for the vision that God had given us to see a city’s young people given the opportunity to live their lives to the full. We decided to stay and incredibly, we’ve not missed a pay day yet and through the generous support of funders, supporters, donors, friends and family, the staff team was as big as ever. 

Whilst this was happening we felt challenged to to trim all that we were doing and make it about the main thing; building safe communities that allow young people to explore their life choices and faith supported by leaders that genuinely care for them and will walk their life with them. As we trimmed back all that we were doing we sadly had to say goodbye to projects and people. 

Covid-19

Covid-19 had a dramatic effect on youth work in general and was one of the hardest encironments we have faced in running open access youth work.  We lost projects, finances, staff and contact with some young people whilst much of our work was unable to run or was very stop start.  But even through this time we were still able to support young people through our work with schools and using online sessions, particularly those most in need.

Post Covid

On the other side of Covid-19 Forge Youth is still investing in children and young people's lives and have began to build back from this time.  We are constantly amazed by all that is happening across the city and the number of young people’s lives that are being transformed.  We developed the project to also work with children and families, with a real focus on areas of deprivation.  With a commitment to working in partnership with other churches, charities and organisations to make a tangible difference in children and young peoples' lives and to allow them to explore faith.

Food And Community Trust

On the 1st November 2023 we officially became part of a brand new charity called the Food And Community Trust!  Forge youth, along with Sheffield S6 Foodbank and debt work are all part of this new charity.  In recent times we have found ourselves partnering across these projects in an increasing measure. This exciting time will enable us to grow and develop in new ways, better partner with churches and organisations and better support those who need it. 

Today Forge Youth are working in 4 areas across Sheffield.  We want to develop more provision, engaging more children, more often, to make more difference in children's lives. 

Thanks for visiting forgeyouth.com, why not have a look around and see some of the things that are happening!