Welcome

The last few months have been a challenge as we seek to look after our church family and the people around our churches. Thank you for all you have been doing. We are hugely encouraged that despite that you are considering running a holiday club. We hope this resource eases some of the pressure and enables you to connect with families over the summer.

There is no one way to run this, so use and adapt and be creative in a way that suits your context and families.

Please do read the 'Information for churches' document on the Resources page. There is lots of handy information for risk assessments and safeguarding which is a very important part of planning and leading any children's work.

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Inviting

 If you have decided to run 'Adventuring with God' it is important to invite the people and families around you. There is no right or wrong to who you invite but it is important to invite people!

In the 'Images pack' on the Resources page there are images for each session, the logo (in colour and black&white) and also a background image that you may like to use, perhaps with words over the top. Do use these as much as you wish for invites and in your sessions.

Here are a few ideas for inviting:

• Personalised invitations to the families that are connected to your church or groups to let them know what is happening and when.
• General invitations to local schools or groups that it will be relevant to (check if and how to do this with the school first). It may be that you could add an invitation to their newsletter rather than printed invites.
• Put it on Facebook making it clear the ages that it is appropriate for...ask your church families to share it with their friends.
• You may share a general invite to the whole series.
• You may also publicise each session as well if people can join later on.

​Make sure any invite or publicity includes:

• What it is.
• Relevant times and dates.
• Where and what will happen e.g. on Zoom/Holiday pack and resources delivered.
• How to book or ask questions.
• DO NOT share a link to a video call on general invitations, on social media or to people you do not know.

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Planning and Leading

There is no one way to use the material. We have released a 'Leader's pack', an 'Activity pack' and directly onto the webpages, to help you use the resources in your way. Below are four ideas with varying degree of online and preparation time. These are to give you ideas for how it would best work in your own church.

Online
Choose days and times (once a week or every day for a week). You lead the majority of the session online using something like Zoom. You may still decide to have parts of it outside of the session (e.g. meal chatter, venture out).

• Send out invitations to invite your local families. Include the dates and times you are doing it and booking details.
• Booking. When people are booked in and have given the correct permissions, you can send the information for accessing the video call (e.g. Zoom)
• Running the session. Everything you need is in the 'Leader's pack' on the Resources page but you may wish to adapt them for your families. You can play videos through video calls in Zoom etc for the story and songs. Do think about how long the session will be and how much you can fit in. The activity may be difficult to do together if it is mainly younger children, but older children in a small group may appreciate sitting and chatting together as they do it.
• Create a 'Holiday bag' for each child/family that includes materials for each of the activities. You may want to add some sweets, stickers etc just for enjoyment. Please wash your hands regularly while putting them together and deliver in a safe way.
• Include the information for the at home bits. It depends what you do online to what families will need to do themselves. If they are doing the activity do include the 'Activity pack' from the Resources page.
• Encourage the parents. Many parents will be working and appreciate the children being occupied. This may be a much needed gift you want to offer. But do think about how you will draw families in during the session and/or between sessions.
• Keep in touch. A WhatsApp group, email address or some way for people to stay in touch and share what they have been doing with the church and each other.

Online lite​
Run part of the session online for introducing, leading a part of it or as a chance for families to catch up and share what they are learning. Then the rest of the session is family led at home with all the resources available to them. You decide what you can lead with everyone and what families can lead. This is great because there is a social face-to-face time but also flexibility for families.

• Send out invitations to invite your local families. Include the dates and times you are doing it (once a week or every day for a week) and booking details.
• Booking. When people are booked in and have given the correct permissions, you can send the information for accessing the video call (e.g. Zoom)
• Running the session. It really is up to you about how much you do online and offline. You may meet online to start the session e,g, tell the story, song and prayer together and then say good bye for families to do the craft, outside and meal chatter together. You might meet so that the children/families can share what they have done and learnt. Remember that you can play the videos included if using something like Zoom.
• Create a 'Holiday bag' for each child/family that includes materials for each of the activities. You may want to add some sweets, stickers etc just for enjoyment. Please wash your hands regularly while putting them together and deliver is a safe way.
• Include the information for the at home bits. What families will need to do themselves is dependent on what you do online. You  may just send the 'Activity pack home' or you may adapt or write your own version of the 'Home pack' (both on the Resources page)
• Keep in touch. A WhatsApp group, email address or some way for people to stay in touch and share what they have been doing with the church and each other.

Offline
Run it by inviting and delivering all the resources for families to do it at home. Because there is no face-to-face time it is important to give a guide of when each session happens to give momentum and for families to feel they are doing it together. 

• Send out invitations to invite your local families. Make sure to include a way to respond, especially if you are sending to families who are not regular church families.
• Create a 'Holiday bag' for each child/family that includes materials for each of the activities. You may want to add some sweets, stickers etc just for enjoyment. Please wash your hands regularly while putting them together and deliver is a safe way.
• Include information to run the sessions at home. This can go into the holiday bag for delivery. It could be a link to this website, the printed 'Leader's pack' or 'Activity pack' with your own ideas for leading - both are available on the Resources page. We've given these options so you can add, adapt or change to suit your families.
• When is it happening? 1 session a week works well. You do not need to have a set day, but knowing which session to do each week means families feel they are doing it together.
• Remember the videos. All the worship songs and some of the activities and stories are videos. So include the link to the website and/or YouTube channel in their bag.
• Keep in touch. A WhatsApp group, email address or some way for people to stay in touch and share what they have been doing with the church and each other.

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At its simplest
There are many reasons a church cannot create or distribute 'Holiday bags' or run online sessions. But that doesn't mean you can't be involved. This website has been set up so that families have everything they need. So do let them know and encourage your families to join in.

• Invite. Send an invitation that includes a link to the sessions and encourage families to get involved.
• Share. Create a way for them to share what they have been doing and reflecting on. It may be an email for them to send things in, a group conversation or private Facebook group. 
• Encourage. Send encouragements and questions along the way.

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After the summer

We hope and pray that this isn't a stand alone event but that as we move into the next academic year churches stay connected with families. It may be thinking about inviting families in when it is safe and people feel confident. It may be inviting them to events and groups you already run. It may be sending encouraging messages and keeping in touch with one another.

If you want to chat to someone about how you can stay connected to the families that have been involved or want a wider conversation about welcoming families in church then get in touch.

Growing Faith have a Facebook page to share ideas, resources and events. Click here.

Anna Naish works for the Diocese looking at how we love one another and welcome people into our churches. Click here to email.