If you know myself or Mark, you may have heard us talk about the ‘FaithFull Generation’ project. We are both involved in this and part of the Children Matter team who are responsible for it. (The spelling is deliberate!)
It’s difficult to summarise, but In short, this is about building life long resilient faith in children. It is broken down into 10 key areas that support faith formation. You can read more about it here
Last February saw the release of a book about this. (Kindle version here)
But what does all this mean to children and young people who have additional needs and disabilities?
Well, myself and Mark are hoping to oversee/write a companion book that looks at what ‘FaithFull Generation’ would mean for a child or young person with additional needs or disabilities.
This will not be a ‘how to welcome children with additional needs’ book, but one that takes a serious look at lifelong, resilient faith formation in children who have additional needs and disabilities. We hope, it will show churches and organisations how they can support families better in this, and encourage the families themselves.
If you are the parent of children with additional needs, or *support children in a Christian faith based setting – we need your help!
We need short stories of faith about your children or the children you care for. It could be now, or a historical story of a child who is now an adult.
*If you are not the parent, we will need parental permission to use stories
Please take a look at the FaithFull Generation website. It shows the 5 areas, with each area split into two.
Could you tell us stories of how you have seen these areas working out in your child’s life? For example, in one area we talk about compassion and serving – is there a story of how your child has served in the church/community/overseas and how it has impacted or helped them ground their faith? Or in the mentoring section, have they benefited from the wisdom and support of others, especially cross-generational mentoring?
Any stories we use will have names changed so we can protect privacy. If they are not used in the book, we would love to use them on this website or on a new ANA Facebook page that will look specifically at faith formation – if you want to be a part of that discussion, you can find that page here.
Please use the ANA email address (additionalneedsalliance@gmail.com) to send us your stories.
Many thanks
Kay and Mark
