Shaftesbury’s work with Churches
We’re looking to partner with churches that are near to our services, especially those that people we support attend.
Significant barriers still exist which prevent full participation of people with disabilities from exploring faith and spirituality. We‘re excited about new partnerships with churches and other community groups which will help us to overcome these barriers for the people we support.
This partnership can take many forms, such as:
- Church ministers visiting a Shaftesbury service to lead worship and prayers
- Shaftesbury supporting churches to make their community fully accessible, so that people with disabilities can grow in their faith and play a full part as church members
- Friendships between church members and people we support, which lead to full inclusion on the social life of the church
- Shaftesbury praying for local churches
- Volunteering, both by those from the church spending time at the Shaftesbury service, and people we support in roles within a church
- Employment opportunities in care work and education
What does our work to support spiritual care look like?
There are two strands to our spiritual care framework:
- The first focuses on building local relationships with churches and other faith and community organisations, as described above.
- The second, with our inclusive Christian faith at the heart, offers chaplaincy and spiritual care to all of those we support, and pastoral care to our staff.
If you’re part of a church or faith group in easy reach of one of our services and would like to explore what partnership could look like for you, please get in touch!
Next steps for our previous work
Until 2020, our Community Engagement team offered resources, training and support to build connected communities across the UK. Recent years have seen us working in dementia, disability, community development, mental health and wellbeing. Our resources on these topics are still available on our website. We are hugely grateful for the partnerships we have formed over many years and value the relationships we’ve built with so many.
