Called to action

Derby Food for Thought Alliance, Derby City Mission and Derby City Vision are partnering together to facilitate a co-ordinated response to the cost-of-living crisis. 

Please watch and share the video which sets out our response which is to Pray, Give and Act: 

Pray  

We want prayer to be our first response rather than our last resort. ‘Light in the darkness’ monthly prayer gatherings will take place on the first Wednesday of the month, 7.30pm-9pm, everyone is welcome:  

Oct 5th - Derby City Church 

Nov 2nd - All Nations    

Dec 7th - Broadway Baptist Church 

Jan 11th - St Werburgh's    

Feb 1st - St Alkmunds    

Mar 1st – Derby Cathedral 

Give  

We believe we need to raise £250,000 to help people survive this winter. And are creating a crisis fund which will help us to: 

• Provide resource to purchase food to meet the supply and demand of provision needed for food parcels; 

• Help us deliver an additional 10 Community Meals based from Church bases or Christian Projects to provide a nutritious meal, in a warm environment that helps to tackle loneliness on a weekly basis; 

• Provide increased debt support through Jubilee Project to ensure those who are facing crippling times can access support locally; 

• Enable us to set up our own crisis fund that will enable us to support people beyond what is currently available; 

You can donate via BACS:   

Bank:                     Lloyds Bank 

Account Name: Community Action Derby Ltd 

Sort Code:           30-92-59 

Account No.:      03323744 

Please quote ‘Food for Thought’ or ‘F4TA’ to help us to allocate the funds correctly. 

Please note, we do accept Gift Aid. For more information email df4ta@communityactionderby.org.uk 

https://www.communityactionderby.org.uk/df4ta/donate/Join-the-Squid-Army 

Act 

Can you help practically? Do you have a church building or a community centre where you could provide your local community with a hot meal, a warm space and friendship throughout the winter months? 

You might have seen various national initiatives emerging with the same goal – please think about whether you can set up or offer such a space and let us know the time and day this will be available. 

Christmas Connection

Christmas Connection is an initiative run in partnership with Derby City Mission, Love Your Neighbour and Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance that we are hoping we can all play our part in this year. 

Given the difficult circumstances that many families are facing, churches and charities like Upbeat Communities, Derby City Mission, Safe Families for Children and The Hope Centre will be receiving lots of requests from families needing our help to provide presents for their children this Christmas. 

Last year we were able to provide present parcels for 705 children in need in our city. Here is some feedback from one organisation we partnered with last year: 'With the assistance of Christmas Connection, we have been able to bring real joy and the spirit of Christmas into so many more homes. Your work is transformative for each child; you give not just the gift of Christmas but the gift of kindness which could change the whole way they see the world'. 

This year there will be considerably more and we will only be able to meet this demand as we work together. If you are able to hold a toy service or collection, we would be most grateful. We will need to quarantine toys delivered before we can pack them to minimise the risk of cross infection, so we would appreciate it if you are able to hold your service/ end your appeal no later than the first week in December. If you are not able to hold a service/collection, we will again be using the very successful Amazon wish list this year to enable people to buy gifts and have them delivered straight to The Derby City Mission offices at 10 Normanton Road DE1 2GW (Gift Registry address). You can access the list via this link https://amzn.eu/683VaUr. 

Please promote this among your friends, neighbours and churches. You can also look at this list for ideas for presents as it gets harder each year to avoid computerised toys for older children and accordingly this is the age group we can be short of presents for (9-17 year olds). We will also have an appeal on the Derby City Mission website through which people can make donations so that we can buy for the age groups most needed at https://www.derbycitymission.org.uk/christmas

If you are planning to hold a toy service or a collection this year, please get in touch with Sarah Fowler, Head of Poverty and Prevention at Derby City Mission Sarah@derbycitymission.org.uk and let her know the date you are likely to be able to deliver the toys collected. Please remember we only accept brand new toys, teddies and books; chocolate selection boxes and sweets are also very welcome.

Thank you so much for your support in blessing children and families in need in our city.

Social enterprise on the rise!

It has been so encouraging to hear stories from different social enterprises which are bringing transformation to our city recently. If you haven't seen the social media stories then here are a few updates so we can promote and support these different enterprises:

Upbeat Clean

Upbeat Communities have started a cleaning social enterprise that combines outstanding cleaning with life changing employment for refugees providing a really reliable efficient cleaning service for churches, charities, and other commercial properties. Many refugee parents struggle to find work that fits with their childcare commitments, this often leaves families struggling financially on benefits for many years and has negative effects on their ability to integrate and rebuild their mental health. Upbeat Clean offers real living wage employment that restores value to individuals and relieves poverty. If any churches, charities or individuals are considering what options they have for cleaning their premises in a covid secure way then please get in touch with Michael Gladwell at hello@upbeatclean.co.uk

Derby Urban Church Car Valeting Academy

Steve Clark has joined the Derby Urban Church staff team to begin a Car Valeting Training academy which will hopefully lead to a social enterprise, helping people take a step away from homelessness. Hear more about the vision from Graham Watkins and Steve here

Yada Collective

Yada has a vision for reimagining Derby’s Nightlife through creating an alcohol-free environment, community and experience for everyone and recently opened its doors for business! Book a table here

So Good Kombucha UK 

Recently launched by Lesley So from Reach Derby, So Good Kombucha seeks to employ, train, and empower refugees and others who are marginalised in society to give them meaningful work and enable them to come out of the social benefits system. Our goal is that more than 50% of our employees will have a refugee background and/or are from a marginalised / disadvantaged people group. Read more about Lesley's journey here

Sacred Bean Coffee Shop

Sacred Bean Coffee is a non-profit social enterprise that was pioneered by and continues to be run by people overcoming life controlling issues, working with socially excluded people to bring great tasting coffee that helps people in need. Sacred Bean recently celebrated the opening of their Coffee Shop at the Derby Community Hub. You can find them at the Shot Tower, 1 Morledge, Derby, DE1 2AW Monday - Thursday from 8.30am to 3pm for breakfast, brew or lunch.

Thy Kingdom Come - Beacon Event

On Sunday 23rd May 2021 we joined together as churches across our city to worship, pray and be part of something bigger in our nation.

As part of our Pentecost celebrations, we gathered online for the annual Thy Kingdom Come celebration.

It was a fantastic programme put together by the team at St Werburghs.

As City Vision we long to see the churches across the city united together to pray and work for the good of our city and are so excited by the Thy Kingdom Come initiative as it brings all of this together as well as being an international annual prayer initiative.

Enjoy the video above!

Covering our city in prayer

On May 23rd to celebrate Pentecost as the churches together in Derby we will be gathering online for the annual Thy Kingdom Come celebration - you can join by going to youtube and searching for Derby City Vision. We'd love churches in Derby to join us and to be a part of it. We long to see the churches across the city united together to pray and work for the good of our city. So in the run up to the Pentecost celebration, during the first 3 weeks of May, we are looking to prayer walk every street and area of Derby. We have created an app which you can download here: https://derby.prayerwalk.app/prayer-route

Complete the login details on the website and it will create an app that will allow you to chose and mark off the streets that you want to walk and pray for. As you walk and pray we are longing to see spiritual transformation but we also want to see physical transformation so we're asking that people also litter pick as they pray that we might make a tangible difference across Derby.

For more information or any questions about how you and your church can get involved please contact Anna Mann - anna.mann@stwderby.org.

For a promo video (see below) that can be shown in services or put on websites please also head to our YouTube Channel or you can download a copy here.

No one person or one church can do this by themselves. Only as a united church and people can we cover our whole city and pray that God's Kingdom would come and His will would be done across every street and every area that many might know salvation and transformation.

Yada - Vacancies

My name is Rhondell and I made Derby my home after moving here to study at the University in 2013, I also attend Reach Derby. After graduation a few of my friends and I wanted to create something that was in stark contrast to the current night-time economy and teamed up with Derby City Mission to create YADA. We are now our own community interest company with an aim to create a thriving alcohol-free venue that serves the city of Derby (www.yadacollective.co.uk). 

You may have seen recently seen that we are hiring. Here are the two job roles that are featured on our site. These roles have been made possible through the Kickstart Scheme and therefore it is only accessed through job coaches. I would be grateful if you can circulate these opportunities among your networks:

 Administrative and Digital Marketing Assistant: https://yadacollective.co.uk/insight/administrative-and-digital-marketing-assistant/

 Front of House Executive: https://yadacollective.co.uk/insight/front-of-house-executive/

 For more information please contact:rhondell@yadacollective.co.uk

Citywide Prayer - March 2021

It was great to be hosted by New Life Church for our Citywide Prayer gathering last week. If you missed it you can watch it back on our Youtube channel and use the themes to pray for our city at this crucial time.

Thy Kingdom Come

In support of the global wave of prayer from 21-31 May 2020

"Thy Kingdom Come" an initiative launched by The Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 2016, invites you to join a global prayer movement to pray between Ascension and Pentecost, for more people to come to know Jesus. 

More details of events across Derby coming soon.

“In praying 'Thy Kingdom Come' we all commit to playing our part in the renewal of the nations and the transformation of communities."
Archbishop Justin Welby