We have volunteersn from all the Lichfield churches and our work is strengthened by being able to go into schools on behalf of the whole
Lichfield Christian community.
The Trust remains responsible for four main areas of activity, namely Bridgebuilders, Engage! Youth Mentoring, The
Easter & Christmas Schools Weeks and the Shepherd’s Crook Puppets. All of these are aimed at promoting the object
of the Trust which is to support children and young people in the schools, colleges, and other educational
establishments, in Lichfield and the surrounding area, as a Christian charity.
We are writing to you specifically because of a risk to the area of our work dependant on funding, the Engage! Youth
Mentoring Project. The other three areas require only small amounts of funding as they are volunteer driven.
Engage requires paid management and administration support from our two part time staff, Tina and Flavia. This
enables our excellent and much admired volunteer mentors to work successfully with young people in the primary
and secondary schools in Lichfield.
We have been able in recent years to expand the mentoring work in schools due to generous grants from the United
Reformed Church, West Midlands Synod and from Wade Street Church in Lichfield. However, despite giving from
many in the last year enabling us to continue to provide the mentoring for the 2023-24 school year, we have a
significant shortfall (circa £15k) against our annual costs of £26k from September 2024 onwards. Unless that gap is
closed we will have to take decisions by the end of July 2024 at the latest to reduce the paid support. This will have
significant impacts on what we are able to deliver to the schools.
As a Trust we have been making applications to various funds for grants. This will continue and we will hopefully be
successful with some. We are looking to secure funding over a three year period ideally, so that we can have more
certainty as we plan with the Lichfield schools.
However, we do now want to widen the understanding of our financial position. We have a number of regular
donors and one church that supports us annually, but we would like to widen the understanding of the criticality of
our work in our Christian mission in Lichfield and seek new donors and supporters able to give financially, from
individuals, to schools themselves, churches and businesses in Lichfield.
Please would you consider this and let us know if you, your church or members of your congregation would be able
to support the work further by an annual gift, a one off gift, or by asking others to consider a gift to the Trust. We
would welcome any thoughts too on how you could respond and ask for prayer at this time.
If you would like to find out more or discuss this further please do contact Chris Cheadle (Mrs.), Trustee Chair,
(chrischeadle@msn.com) or Keith Newton, Trustee (the.newton.family@btinternet.com).
LCSWT, c/o Wade Street Church, Frog Lane, Lichfield. WS13 6HL
Registered Charity Number: 1056734
We enclose a copy of our latest newsletter. If you would like hard copies of this for your congregation do let us
know.
Finally, we are holding a celebration evening for the Trust as a chance to expand on our work and to thank the
volunteers who deliver our work in the schools. This is on Wednesday June 19th and we enclose also an invitation to
that event. You and others from your church would be most welcome to join us that evening.