Tadj takes on the OPP job

Earlier in 2011, we made a succesful bid for a ONE Programme Participant (OPP) for our church and we recently appointed a young man call Tadj from Durham to the position and he will start work with us in September. What does it mean for us?

Tadj will be working with us part time for a whole year from September 2011 to help us to develop our ministry among the disabled. Since 2010 we have been talking and praying in the leadership team and the church council about the idea. It’s much more than an idea now!

Disability and social exclusion are at the heart of the project and here is an outline of how we plan to tackle the issues with Tadj, our new OPP:

Make more of our existing links with local charity If U Care Share and Lumley FC to develop disability sport (especially football).
Help establish a Prospects Group to provide accessible worship opportunities for people with learning difficulties in County Durham.
Assist in enabling a self-help forum/network for parents and carers of disabled young people (this already up and running on Wednesday nights from 6.00pm - 8.30pm.
Establish a new mid-week fellowship group for 11-14 year olds that will aim to integrate young people who are potentially socially excluded because of disability.
Working with our Marmalade group to introduce broader social justice issues into their ambit.

It’s a big role but we have a team set up to support Tadj and we have realistic targets that can be easily achieved early on. We should all be prepared to get involved with Tadj in these new initiatives. If you can give a little, we’ll all gain a lot.