Youth for Christ seeks to reach every young offender

Youth for Christ has overhauled its young offenders ministry in a bid to fulfil its vision of bringing a message of hope to every young offender in the UK.

The Reflex ministry has been restructured and rebranded to become a national ministry with regional partnerships running in collaboration with other organisations across the UK.

The ministry works with young people in custody and in the community through detached youth work, mentoring and resettlement programmes, and gives them a step up for the future by offering them accredited music, theatre, and sport programmes.

Reflex is currently running in the north west of England in partnership with The Message Trust, in the north-east in partnership with YFC North East and in the south east and London in partnership with The Salvation Army.

It also facilitates outreach courses that encourage young offenders to reflect on issues like crime, family, society and faith.

Reflex has launched a brand new website offering videos and songs for download and information about the resources and training it offers to help Christians engage with young offenders.

Geoff Baxter, Reflex Director, said the ministry was about seeing young, broken, marginalised and disengaged people turn their lives around and be given a second chance.

He expressed his excitement at Reflex's new structure.

“I believe that by re-structuring in this way, we will not only increase the quality of Reflex programmes but also our capacity to reach young people on the margins of society with a life changing message," he said.

The restructing coincides a the launch of a new evangelistic resource for churches to use alongside their existing educational programmes.

Uncut explores life issues and the Christian faith over six sessions using the 'art of connecting' three-story model that looks at 'your story', 'God's story', and 'my story'.

The course is designed to help young people explore issues relating to identity, choices and hope and consider the impact God makes on people’s lives when they encounter Him. The last section allows young people to look at the life of Jesus, what He said, what He did, why He died and what our response should be.
Using four featured presenters who throw out ideas, opinions and personal experiences

Brendan Quinn, Birmingham Boy’s Brigade Captain, says: "Uncut is an excellent resource that has engaged our young people exactly at their level and in a manner that has provoked questions and debate about Jesus and faith in the lives they are leading.

"The format has been well developed, enabling a focus upon topics that are essential to our young people but that rarely receive the relevant discussion and teaching they warrant. An excellent resource!"