As a church, we have been called to serve Guildford and the surrounding areas in any way we can. We currently support a number of organisations who are offering hands on support to those who need it most, we call them our Local Partners.
Local Partners
Guildford Town Centre Chaplaincy (GTCC)
What is the focus? GTCC was set up by a cross-denomination group of Christians from Guildford churches in 2008, including a number from St Saviour’s who played a key role in its inception. It is a registered charity and has grown from its initial base of around 25 Street Angels to around 130 volunteers across three projects in 2021. The ministry of each project is based on a common theme – to care for the vulnerable and needy in our community, freely and without judgement.
What is GTCC called to?
Care on the streets – Street Angels are out in the town during the night caring for people who become vulnerable for various reasons.
Care at home – Community Angels come alongside, befriend and support people who are lonely and isolated, and help them build connections.
Care in the workplace – Volunteer Chaplains regularly go into agreed workplaces to offer a listening ear, support and the opportunity to be prayed for.
What is the need/opportunity?
The Chaplaincy has a dedicated team of four part-time staff and relies entirely on donations to cover its costs. The work on the ground is delivered by our amazing team of volunteers. Local churches are key to this support, in prayer, giving and raising volunteers. St Saviour’s has consistently played its part, and is responding specifically by establishing a new Community Angels ‘Hub’, rooted in our parish, but linked in with the wider community outreach championed by the town-wide team.
For more information visit www.gtcc.org.uk , click here to watch Street Angels latest video or have a chat with St. Saviour’s partnership ‘champion’, Chris Britton, who can be reached via the church contact list or the church office.
Christians Against Poverty (CAP)
What is the focus? CAP is a Christian charity based in the UK. It is a national organisation specialising in debt counselling for people in financial difficulty, including those facing bankruptcy or insolvency. CAP works through local churches and helps 21,500 families each year with various courses, debt centres and job clubs.
How is the St Saviour’s Big Family involved? CAP is one of our local partners and we regularly run the CAP Life Skills Course, a fantastic 8 week course providing practical skills in how to manage money in all areas of life. The stories of lives transformed and restored are amazing!
How can I help? We are currently looking for some coaches to be trained to help lead the Life Skills Course.
Please contact the church office if you would like to find out more or get involved.
Homeless Ministry
What is the focus? To support rough sleepers, homeless and previously homeless people in Guildford.
What has God called the Homeless Ministry to? To use us and our long term involvement in this work, to provide the Church Family with an opportunity to serve the homeless community and to encourage those with an interest in this area to serve God in this way.
What is the need/opportunity? The town centre is a focus for rough sleeping, a Night Shelter, the Day Centre and hostels. St. Saviour’s is a natural focal point to provide outreach. This has been done by way of Saturday morning breakfasts and Winter Soup Cafe. Since 2020 there has been reduced demand for our support due to Central Govt intervention and provision of out of town temporary accommodation. We continue to monitor the situation regularly with our contacts at GBC and the local agencies and are ready to support any homeless initiative that may arise.
If you would like more information, please contact Mike and Julia Evans via the church office.
The Matrix Trust
What is the focus? The Matrix Trust is a small Christian youth work organisation working to support and nurture young people in Guildford who may be “on the margins” socially, or in terms of educational/emotional development. Our youth workers work in schools offering one to one relational counselling, as well as a range of group work activities. Recent developments include the opening of a community café, The Hideaway, at the Pavilion in Allen House grounds, which, in addition to being a great addition to Guildford’s café culture in a lovely setting, will offer employment and apprenticeship opportunities for young people. And after school hours it will become our new youth work hub for young people from across the Borough.
What is The Matrix Trust called to? Although we are an overtly Christian organisation, we very much work with and engage with the wider community, and we are not “church-based” but feel that our work really reflects God’s love for all of Guildford’s young people
In addition to a) our youth work in schools, b) a growing offer of detached youth work, and c) the youth hub at the Hideaway, we have recently become a member of the Surrey Wellbeing Partnership: this is a group of local youth organisations who have contracted with the local Health Trust to provide early intervention mental health services for young people across Surrey. We will be almost doubling our staff team to deliver these services, and it is really exciting to be part of this new partnership.
What is the need/opportunity? If you would like to get involved there are lots of volunteering opportunities, and we always need financial support because only a small part of our work in schools is funded and we are reliant on the wonderful generosity of many friends (and churches including St Saviours, thank you!) in Guildford and around. And if I may mention it, just now we are looking for a significant gift of about £20k to enable us to complete the final phase of the Pavilion refurbishment: this will enable us to have a separate meeting room available to hire to community groups or local businesses, which will generate income to support our youth work objectives.
If you’d like to know more, please contact Simon Slater via the church office.
HMP Send Chaplaincy
What is the focus? Send Prison is situated close to Woking, and accommodates about 280 women from all over the country, some serving long sentences engaged in long term therapeutic programmes and interventions, and others for short sentences who are only there a few months. Prisons for many can feel like the end of a long road of abuse and rejection, and the Chaplaincy at Send is central to sharing God’s love to prisoners and their families, with responsibility to care for the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the women, and help with some aspects of prisoner rehabilitation.
What is HMP Send Chaplaincy called to? Multi faith chaplains work together to create a space where the women can practice their faith. In addition, with the help of a large number of volunteers, the chaplaincy is able to offer a wide range of programmes to support the women, and offer excellent pastoral and practical support. This includes interventions and courses, both faith and non-faith related, around Living with Loss, Making Sense of Forgiveness, Parenting, and Sycamore Tree – a restorative justice initiative run with the support of Prison Fellowship, as well as Chaplaincy services and Alpha Courses. Making Connections is another programme that helps people to prepare and develop plans for life after prison, where volunteers mentor women for 6 months before they leave.
What is the need/opportunity? Send Prison Chaplaincy also works closely with Prison Fellowship a national organisation whose mission is to show Christ’s love to prisoners by coming alongside them and supporting them. For Send this includes the Sycamore Tree course which is a restorative and victim awareness course which explores the effects of crime on victims, the offenders themselves and the wider community, and helps them to take responsibility for their actions. It has been shown to change attitudes to offending and reduce re-offending, using the underlying narrative of the story of Zaccheus. Prison Fellowship also runs a scheme called Angel Tree whereby volunteers enable parents in prison to send a gift to their children at Christmas; St Saviours has regularly contributed to this through retiring collections over the Christmas period.
For more information about the work at Send Prison contact Julia Slater, our partnership ‘champion’ via the church office.
Meals for You
During the Coronavirus pandemic, we have supported our parish with food deliveries, medicine drop-offs and phone calls as well as other pastoral support. We have taken this a step further and now provide meals; through our new initiative, Meals for You. We are using our wonderful facilities, volunteers and resources to cook freshly cooked meals and distribute them each Thursday to those facing difficulties in our local community.
For more information about Meals for You, click here.