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Kidz Klubs don't appear overnight. With the correct planning and considerations, you can give yours the very best chance of a successful start, with many fruitful years to follow. Use these 12 steps to help you get started.
1. Gain the Support of your church leaders.
Running a Kidz Klub for the long haul requires a huge amount of people and financial
resources. If your church leadership is not fully behind the vision, you simply
won’t be able to sustain it. Talk to your leaders about the Kidz Klub vision
and ask them to come with you to visit an established Kidz Klub. If one of your
leaders wants to accompany you on a Kidz Klub Training Weekend, we can make
someone available to talk to them about the impact Kidz Klub has had on our
wider church body.
2. Decide on the size of the Kidz
Klub you want to launch.
Once you’ve ensured that your church are fully behind the Kidz Klub vision,
you need to decide on the scale of your initial work. Our Kidz Klub on a Saturday
is now attended by over 600 children, who are transported to our building, from
all around the city, on eight double-decker buses, but it started with 60 children,
who all lived in walking distance of the church. If you’re a smaller church,
you don’t have to start huge; Kidz Klub works as well with 50 kids as 500.
The following facts will help you in making your decision:
* In an area of average population density, you will probably get about 100
children walking to your Kidz Klub, without offering transport.
* If you want to run a larger club than this, it costs £80-£100
to hire a double-decker bus, with driver, for half a day.
* You will need a helper ratio of approximately one adult to ten children.
3. Set a budget.
Running a Kidz Klub can cost anything from £30 to £800 a week, so
it’s important that you set a realistic budget before you start. If your
church cannot fully support your work, you will need to think about fund-raising.
Local charities will often give you a one off grant to help with set up costs.
The areas you need to budget for are as follows :
* Set up costs – these can vary
hugely, depending on whether you want to invest in PA and lighting equipment.
These are definitely not essential, but if you can find the money, for example
from a local authority grant, they will add some extra razzmatazz to your club.
* Termly costs - We suggest that you will need to spend a minimum of £200
a term, on props, costumes, music and set paint.
* Weekly costs – In an average club these come to about £30. £15
is spent on games equipment, props etc. and £15 on prizes. We give out
fifteen prizes a week, for winning games or as a reward for good behaviour.
It’s really up to you how much you spend per prize. We spend about a pound
and buy them from a local wholesaler, so the things we buy retail at about twice
that amount.
* Sweets – We give each child who comes to Kidz Klub a 10p sweet each week.
This is a great incentive for good behaviour.
* Transport – As mentioned above, hiring buses is expensive. If you’re
planning to bus kids in, this definitely needs to be included in your financial
planning.It’s worth deciding at this point, whether or not you want to
charge for your club. In poorer areas, this may deter children from coming,
but in more affluent areas it has the advantage of giving the club more value
in parents eyes. Making a small charge can make Kidz Klub seem like a more worthwhile
activity, akin to brownies or drama classes, as well as helping to provide you
with some income.
4. Recruit your team.
We suggest you recruit your team 3-6 months before you plan to launch. Including
them in your planning stage will greatly increase their feeling of ownership.
Meet with them monthly for training or brainstorming sessions, where they can
input their ideas. As part of this training phase bring your whole team on a
Kidz Klub training weekend.
5. Establish your child protection
policy
If your church does not already have a child protection policy, contact the
Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) for help. (www.ccpas.co.uk)
They will also help you to police check your volunteers. Use one training evening
to make sure all your volunteers understand and agree to adhere to your child
protection procedures.
6. Buy your resources.
At this stage you will need to buy your first term of Kidz Klub UK resources.
The resources give you all the ideas you need to run a weekly Kidz Klub, plus
memory verse colouring sheets to use on your home visits. Spend one team meeting
familiarising people with the resources and putting practical plans in place.
These will need to include:
* Buying prizes and sweets
* Producing some form of set or painted backdrop (if required)
* Producing props relevant to the terms theme
* Producing costumes relevant to the terms theme
* Buying a selection of music to use in games and your praise party
* Producing a Kidz Klub introductory letter for parents (see below)
7. Decide on your initial target
area.
Once you know how big you want your Kidz Klub to be, it should be fairly easy
to establish what area you want to work in. As mentioned above, if you work
in an area which is 5-10 mins walking distance from your building, in each direction,
you will probably draw about 100 kids. At this stage it’s worth walking
around the area. Choose a sunny weekend afternoon and see how many children
are playing out. Look at the housing. If it’s mainly student accommodation
or bed-sits, there won’t be a high density of children in the population.
Think about the roads. If you’re expecting children to walk to Kidz Klub,
main roads will present an obvious barrier.
8. Contact other churches or community
groups.
In the past we’ve made the mistake of blasting into new areas with little
regard for what other children’s work is already established there. We’ve
then spent months repairing the damage. Take the time at this stage to contact
all the other churches in your area and let them know what you’re planning.
Also get in touch with any community groups offering children’s activities.
Find out what they run and when, and choose the day and time of your Kidz Klub
with this in mind – you obviously don’t want to conflict.
9. Contact local schools.
About two months before your launch date contact local primary schools. Primary
heads are very busy, so we’ve found a succinct letter, explaining who you
are, when Kidz Klub will launch and how it will benefit the community, works
well. In the letter, ask if they will allow you to come and lead an assembly,
publicising Kidz Klub, in the week before your launch. Follow up the letter
with a phone call a few days later. Once you have an assembly date, ask if the
school will send letters publicising Kidz Klub, home with all the children on
the day you do your assembly.
10. Begin publicising your Kidz
Klub.
About two weeks before you launch, start putting posters in shop windows publicising
Kidz Klub. It’s worth giving away some sort of star prize on the first
week, for example a giant water gun if you’re launching in summer or a
new football shirt in winter. Make sure the prize is detailed on the poster.
The week before, lead assemblies in all the local primary schools. (see
the Schools section for a sample assembly) Produce an introductory letter
explaining who you are and what will happen in a Kidz Klub session. Our letter
is double sided. One side is more of a zany flyer aimed at kids. The reverse
is a letter for parents. In the letter, include everything you can to assure
parents that Kidz Klub will be safe and well run. Explain that all volunteers
are police checked and make it clear that parents are very welcome to attend
the club with their children. Give a stack of the letters to the school, for
them to distribute, on the day you do your assembly.
11. Recruit on the streets.
A couple of days before the first Kidz Klub, send your team out in pairs, after
school time, to talk to children and parents about Kidz Klub. It’s really
important that your volunteers have Kidz Klub T-shirts on, so they are easily
identifiable. We also suggest that you produce photograph ID badges for all
your team. Give all your volunteers a stack of Kidz Klub introductory letters.
They can chat to children who are playing out, enthusing them about Kidz Klub,
and then ask those children to show them where they live, so they can introduce
themselves to parents.(Click here to see more information
on how to do this in the Visiting section)
12. Your first Kidz Klub.
You’re ready for your first Kidz Klub session. Register all the children
on the door. Use this register to form your visiting lists for next week. (Click
here to see more information on how to do this in the Visiting section)
At your first Kidz Klub, run some sort of promotion, to encourage children to
bring their friends next week. Everyone who brings a new friend could win some
sort of prize or could have their name go in a draw for a star prize eg. a new
football kit. Once you’ve started, use your Kidz Klub UK resources as a
weekly guide for running your club.
We describe Kidz Klub as traditional
Sunday School meets Saturday morning TV!
Made up of approximately twenty five segments, each lasting no more than two
or three minutes, it’s totally relevant to a high-speed generation, while
still presenting the clear uncompromising teaching of Jesus.
Kidz Klub sessions last for 90 mins and can be divided into three twenty five
minute sections:
* Introduction and Praise
* Games
* Teaching
While each section is distinct, the
club has one overall aim, that the children attending meet with God in a real
and life changing way. Everything we do, from the warm welcome each child receives,
to the fun and laughter of the games points towards this aim. We don’t
just preach the love of God, we demonstrate it from the minute the first child
arrives, to the minute the last child leaves.
An average Kidz Klub programme looks like this:
INTRODUCTION & PRAISE 25 mins
SEATING
ENTRANCE AND INTRO
RULES
MEMORY VERSE
PRAISE PARTY
GAMES and PANTO 25 mins
GAME ONE
PANTO
GAME TWO
GAME THREE
PANTO
GAME FOUR
PREACHING 25 mins
SILENT SEATS INTRODUCTION
BIBLE LESSON
OBJECT LESSON ONE
OBJECT LESSON TWO
OBJECT LESSON THREE
RESPONSE
During the first section of the club
you are aiming to put in place three vital foundations that you will build on
later:
1. A loving, welcoming atmosphere
2. A secure, disciplined environment
3. A sense of excitement and anticipation
These foundations are built from the moment the first child is welcomed through
the door and shown to a seat.
Seating
1. Queue the children outside the
door until you’re ready to start. By letting them enter in a continual
stream, one after the other, you’ll create far more excitement than a slow
dribble in.
2. Have a helper welcome each child personally as they come through the door.
Make each child feel special and wanted.
3. Make sure some upbeat music is playing as the kids come in.
4. Have helpers positioned to show the kids to their seats. Seat the boys in
one section and the girls in another. This will create your two teams. There
is a natural competition between boys and girls, so by dividing your teams according
to gender, you’ll be able to tap into this.
5. Direct the kids to fill up the seats from the front to the back. By showing
them where to sit, you are helping to establish order and preventing the formation
of a rebellious "back row posse."
Entrance and Intro
1. When all the kids are seated,
get them to put ten fingers in the air and count down for Kidz Klub – the
most exciting hour of their week!
2. As the kids shout one, a loud burst of intro music comes on and four or five
helpers run from behind a wooden set or backdrop. They’re armed with water
guns, for shooting the opposing team and generally dance, clap and cheer to
the music, encouraging the kids to do likewise.
3. After approximately 60 seconds, the leader blows a whistle. This is the queue
for the music to be turned off and the club to return to silence and order.
Rules
Most Kidz Klubs have three rules:
1. Stay in your seats
2. Obey all the helpers
3. The whistle means silence
But you can add extras that are specific
to your situation. At this point in the club the leader will explain the rules.
They may get the kids to shout them out, have a competition to see who knows
them or sing them to a popular tune. The important thing is that at the beginning
of each club, you are re-establishing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
By explaining to the kids that only those who keep the rules will be picked
for games, you’re giving them a motivation to behave well. Finish this
section by blowing the whistle and waiting until you have absolute silence.
Then direct the kids to put their hands together and close their eyes (it might
sound a bit old fashioned, but it really helps with concentration) and get a
helper or child to come out and pray for the club.
Memory Verse
The teaching each week is tied into
one simple, memorable bible verse. At this point in the club we get all the
children onto their feet and learn the memory verse to a song or rap or by chanting
it. We sometimes put memory verses to recent pop tunes, but it often works just
as fell if we put them to well known tunes such as She’ll be Coming Round
the Mountain, The Okey Cokey or Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. When you buy
the Kidz Klub UK rescources, you’re given a different creative way to learn
the memory verse, each week.
Praise Party
From learning the memory verse, we
run straight into the praise party. Some Kidz Klubs have live bands, while others
sing to CDs. Either works well. We don’t write our own material, but draw
equally from new kids praise CDs and old favourite tunes, like 'He’s got
the Whole World in His Hands'. More details of the songs we use are available
in the Kidz Klub Uk resources. We tend to sing three or four up-beat praise
songs, followed by one or two quieter worship ones. Many people struggle to
get non-church kids, especially boys, to engage with praise and worship. We
want to encourage you that it can be done. When planning a praise time think
about the following points:
1. Is the song up-beat and energetic enough for raucous inner-city boys?
2. If so, does it have actions and are they "male" enough to engage
them. Foot stamping and punching fists in the air will always engender a better
response than a complex sign-dancing mime!
3. Are the words simple enough? Because we work in an area where literacy levels
are not high, we use songs that can be known by heart once they’ve been
sung three or four times.
4. Do the kids understand what they’re singing about? Try getting helpers
to give brief testimonies of answered prayer between songs, so when kids are
singing that "it’s great to have a friend like Jesus," they’ve
just heard why Jesus is a great friend.
5. Make sure all your helpers, those positioned around the hall and those at
the front are singing and dancing enthusiastically. The kids will follow your
lead.
6. Give some sort of reward to those who join in – get a helper looking
out with sweets or prizes during the praise party or explain that the most enthusiastic
singers will be picked for a game. This acts as more than bribery. Children
are very susceptible to peer pressure. If the child next to them is scowling
through out, they’re unlikely to engage in praising God. Their response
will have more to do with the fact that they’re intimidated by their neighbour,
than whether or not they love Jesus. By rewarding those who join in, you create
an atmosphere in which praising God is acceptable. Some may be joining in just
to get a sweet, but by changing the atmosphere, you free those who want to,
to genuinely engage with God.
7. Start slowly. Initially aim to get the children to sing two or three praise
songs. As the culture changes to one that will unashamedly praise God, you can
introduce a longer praise time and then move into worship.
8. During worship songs, it’s often helpful to get all the children to
sit down and close their eyes. Again this stops those who genuinely want to
worship God from being intimidated by the thought that others may be staring
at them.
The praise party completes the first section of the club, Intro and Praise.
By the end of this section each child should have been personally loved and
welcomed, should be aware that they are in a safe environment, where discipline
and order are maintained, and should have had the chance to engage with God.
After the Intro and Praise section,
comes the Games time. The games serve two basic purposes:
1. They’re great fun! By allowing the children to laugh, cheer and burn
off energy, they prepare them to sit quietly during the teaching section.
2. Being picked for a game acts as an incentive for good behaviour. Most weeks
we pick children for games, by asking questions about the previous week’s
teaching. This gives them an incentive to listen carefully.
You can also pick children for joining in the praise time, responding when the
whistle’s blown for silence or bringing new friends to Kidz Klub. The games
give you a means of rewarding appropriate behaviour.
Because the Kidz Klub model is designed
to work well with large groups of children, most of the games are played on
a stage area at the front of the hall. Three or four children from each team
are chosen to play, while the rest of the team watch and cheer. Because of this
the games have to be visual – all Kidz Klub games are as fun to watch as
to play. The games fall into five basic categories:
1. Messy Games – always a winner! Eg. Baked Bean Challenge – Four
large, clear, pyrex bowls are filled with baked beans and placed on tables at
the front of the stage. The players stand behind the tables, with their hands
behind their backs. When you say Go, they take a deep breath and hold their
head under the beans for as long as possible. The winner is the child who holds
their head under for the longest.
2. Eating Games – eg. Bananarama – Each player pulls a fish-net stocking
over their head and face. When you say go, they peel a banana and eat it through
the stocking. The first to finish their banana wins.
3. Relay Games – eg. The Jelly-Welly Relay. Four children play for each
team. Start with two players at each end of the stage, in relay format. All
players take their shoes and socks off. When you say Go the first player puts
their foot into their team’s "jelly-welly" (A size eleven adult
welly filled to the brim with jelly!) and runs as fast as they can to the other
end of the stage. They transfer the welly to the next player, who runs back.
The game continues until all four players have run. The first team to finish
are the winners.
4. Strength Games – eg Lung-Power Blow Out. Buy a two foot section of clear
plastic tubing (the sort used in home brewing kits) from your local DIY shop.
Using a funnel, fill the tube with strawberry milk-shake. A player for the girls
takes one end of the tube and a player for the boys the other. When you say
Go, they both blow as hard as they can. The looser obviously ends up with strawberry
milk-shake squirted all over their face. You can choose different players and
play several rounds of this game.
5. Team Games – Eg. Cream Crackered. Every child at kidz Klub is given
a dry cream cracker. When you say "Go!", they eat it as fast as they
can, then stand up in their place with their mouth wide open to show it’s
gone. The winning team is the first is have ten players finish.
Each week we play four games, of
differing types, always including one team game, so each child has a chance
to participate.
Panto
Interspersed between the games are
a couple of "panto" sections. Each term of Kidz Klub UK resources
is themed. The resources give you examples of easy to make goodie and baddie
costumes, that you can use throughout the term to build a simple panto plot.
For example, in the Camelot theme, the goodie is a character called Smelly Elvin
– a slightly simple dungeon prisoner, loosely based on the Baldrick character
from Blackadder. The baddie is the Black Knight – a dastardly villain,
who wears black trousers and cape and has a black bucket over his head, with
a cut out section to see through. Both are chasing the hand of Maid Marion.
If we were playing the games above, the panto section might go something like
this:
After game one Smelly Elvin would come on and see baked beans – his favourite
food. After taking a good mouthful he would try to ask Maid Marion on a date,
while his face was still covered with juice. To make matters worse, farting
sound effects would be played, while Smelly Elvin tried to cover up his powerful
gaseous emissions! Maid Marion would then run off in disgust, leaving a dejected
Elvin. As I’m sure you can imagine, kids find this kind of horse-play hilarious.
It’s worth noting that not all Kidz Klubs choose to include a panto section.
If you are working with a small number of children or using the Kidz Klub UK
resources in a Sunday School setting, panto may not work so well. If you’ve
got a large group of children it produces a lot of laughter and is definitely
worth including.
Once you’ve completed your four games and any panto sections, that brings
you to the end of the Games Time. By this point the kids should have had lots
of fun and burnt off a fair bit of energy.
The third and final section of Kidz Klub is the Teaching Section. During this 25 minute slot we present memorable, relevant teaching on one simple topic. The topic is summarised by an easy to understand Bible verse. Before the teaching begins, we ensure that the children are quiet and ready to listen. We do this through the silent seat introduction.
Silent Seat Introduction
The silent seat introduction takes
approximately five minutes. During this time the children gradually calm down
from the excitement of the games and prepare themselves to listen. We carefully
explain what is required of them during the teaching time – for them to
sit in silence, looking and listening to the adult who’s talking and not
disturbing the children around them. We then give them three incentives to behave
appropriately:
1. We explain that all the helpers around the hall are holding sweets. At any
point during the teaching time, the helpers will look for children who are listening
carefully and put a sweet in their lap. This is their’s to keep and eat
later.
2. In addition to this, a helper is standing at the front with a star prize
certificate. They are looking for the best child in the whole of Kidz Klub.
That child will be announced at the end of the Teaching Time and they and one
friend will get to go on a free trip, for example bowling, swimming or to the
cinema, in the next school holidays.
3. Finally, and most importantly, we explain that each team has four balloons
which are displayed at the front of the stage. If a girl talks at any point
during the teaching, a girl’s team balloon will be popped and vice versa
for the boys. At the end of the club all the children are due to get a 10p sweet,
but if all the girls balloons have been popped, their sweets will go to the
boys. This means that the boys will receive two sweets while the girls get none.
The same applies in reverse if all the boys balloons are popped. This is a great
incentive, as it creates an atmosphere where positive peer-pressure applies.
We frequently see children shushing others, who are trying to talk, because
they don’t want their team to loose their sweets.
Once the Silent Seat Introduction
is finished we count to three and blow the whistle. From that point we expect
(and usually get straight away) complete silence until the end of the teaching
time.
Teaching Time
Although the teaching time consists
of four segments – a bible lesson and three object lessons, we see it as
a whole. The four segments make up one message. The bible lesson lays a foundation,
the first two object lessons expand the topic, while the final one shows them
how to apply the teaching to their own lives. Because the segments follow quickly
one after the other, with one helper picking up as the previous one finishes
speaking, the variation helps to hold the kid’s attention.
Bible Lesson
The bible lessons usually run in
a series, lasting half a term. The series may, for example, follow the life
of an old-testament character or teach the children about six miracles that
Jesus performed. The bible lesson is narrated by one person, while other helpers
act the story out on stage. We use costumes, props, sound effects and humour
to hold the children’s attention.
Object Lessons
Following the bible lesson are three
object lessons. These are short, visual illustrations that help to expand the
point. To make them attention grabbing and memorable we use the following:
* Humour
* Testimony
* Sound Effects
* Large, visual props
* Magic Tricks
* Drama
* Real life scenariosTo see a sample Kidz Klub teaching session, click here
to download a free sample of Kidz Klub UK resources.
Response
Each week we give the children a
chance to respond to the teaching they’ve heard, either through worship
or going to one side of the hall to receive one to one prayer.
Once the response time is finished, the pace increases again, as the winner
of the star prize certificate is announced. The children are then dismissed,
one row at a time, in an orderly fashion and each one receives a personal good
bye on the door.
Many people visit Kidz Klub and comment on the outstanding level of behaviour. Believe us, inner city Liverpool children are not naturally any better behaved than those elsewhere in the county! Over the last ten years we’ve learnt many hard lessons about disciplining kids and hope we’ve come out better equipped to both love and lead those in our care. Whatever your situation we’re sure these lessons will help you too.
Hebrews 5:6 says, "the Lord
disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as children."
Discipline is not a case of being nice or nasty, it’s a question of right
and wrong. By disciplining the children in your care, you’re training them
up in God’s ways.
Discipline Foundations
* Relationship.
Inner-city kids grow up in a culture steeped in rebellion. Because of this,
they will respond better if they view you as an adult friend and not a remote
authority figure. Our home visiting programme means that each child has at least
one adult worker who knows them well. When challenging behaviour surfaces, it’s
this person who’s best equipped to deal with them. If a child loves you
and respects you, nine times out of ten they’ll listen to what you say.
* Boundaries.
Many of our children grow up with
very few boundaries. They’re allowed to roam freely and as long as their
behaviour doesn’t disturb their parents, no one cares what they do. It’s
important that you set very clear boundaries. In a Kidz Klub session we do this
by explaining a simple set of rules at the beginning of the session and then
re-iterating them in more detail at the beginning of the preaching time. If
you repeatedly have problems with behaviour at a certain point in your club,
have you clearly explained to the children what’s expected of them at this
time?
* Consequences.
It’s no good setting boundaries
if there are no consequences for good or bad behaviour. You need to clearly
explain to the children how good behaviour will be rewarded and bad punished.
We reward good behaviour with sweets, prizes and trips out. Children who behave
well also get picked to play in games and participate in dramas and magic tricks.
Children who break the rules are punished by making them take five minutes "time
out" from the club. During this time, a worker will talk to the child calmly
about what they did wrong. If the child settles down and apologises, great they
can go back in and join their friends. In the majority of cases, this is what
happens.
* Authority.
Inner-city kids will do everything
they can to bullying you into playing by their rules. They’ve seen their
classmates intimidate teachers and older siblings intimidate parents. It’s
important that they understand that you are the boss and at Kidz Klub what you
say goes. Make sure the boundaries of acceptable behaviour are firmly fixed
in your own mind. For example, is it OK for a child to swear on the bus to Kidz
Klub or to push in when queueing outside the door? If a child’s behaviour
does not stay within those boundaries, what action are you going to take? Make
sure that you don’t make idle threats. If you threaten a punishment, for
example "If you swear again I’ll take away your sweets," you
have to do it. Be consistent. It’s no good saying that only children who
participate in the praise party will be picked for games, and then picking an
older child who didn’t join in, because you’re trying to win their
favour. Authority is the kind of quiet confidence that good teachers have and
it’s easier to develop if you know you’re working as part of a team.
* Team Work.
It’s important that you maintain
consistent standards as a team. As part of your team training, discuss what
behaviour is acceptable and how you’ll respond if that standard isn’t
met. Support each other. We’ve known many workers, who’ve turned a
blind eye to bullying, because they lack the confidence to deal with an aggressive
child. It’s OK to know your limits. In our Kidz Klub we have a discipline
co-ordinator each week. This person is available to help workers deal with children
who might be too difficult for them to handle alone. It’s better for your
team to seek support, than turn a blind eye to bad behaviour. Make sure you
regularly review behaviour as a team. Hold a de-briefing session at the end
of each club and give your team an opportunity to discuss any bevahiour problems
that occurred.
* Prevention.
We find that behaviour problems often
occur in the less active points of the club, for example when kids are queuing
outside before coming in or are waiting to be dismissed. As the old adage says,
"prevention is better than cure." In your de-briefing sessions at
the end of the club, consider whether bad behaviour often occurs at the same
point. Do you need to make that section of the club more exciting, for example
by running some simple games outside, while the kids are waiting to come in?
Do you need to offer extra incentives for good behaviour, at certain points,
for example giving out prizes during the praise party.How to deal with unruly
children.
If the principles mentioned above are in place and your team consistently adhere
to them, serious behaviour problems should be rare. However there are some children
who will always present a challenge. Below we’ve taken a real-life scenario
and explained how we’d handle it at Kidz Klub.
During the Intro section of the
club, the rules have been explained. When the whistle is blown a ten year old
girl shouts out a swear word. What would we do?
1. The leader would continue the
club as usual. Remember you’re the boss. You can’t allow a difficult
child to hijack the club.
2. The nearest helper would quietly and calmly ask the child to stand up and
go outside.
3. At the door they would be joined by the discipline co-ordinator, who would
accompany them into a designated discipline area, for example, the foyer of
the building.
4. Staying clam and without getting angry or shaming the child, the co-ordinator
would ask them why they shouted out.
5. At this point, away from their friends, most children will be fairly penitent.
The co-ordinator would talk to them about why their behaviour was wrong and
ask them to apologise. If the child stays calm and is happy to apologise, they
can go back into the club.
6. Some children, however, don’t react well to being asked to leave the
club. They arrive in the discipline area angry and aggressive. They will often
feel they’ve been unfairly treated.
7. If you don’t know the child very well, send the other helper to get
the person who visits them. They’re more likely to listen to someone they
know.
8. When a child is angry start by listening. Do not respond with aggression
and don’t make it a battle of wills. By letting them talk, you will often
manage to diffuse a situation. As they pick up that you love them and are on
their side, they will usually start to calm down.
9. Once calm, you can then begin to talk to them about what they did wrong and
follow steps four and five above.
10. If a child refuses to calm down, they will usually make a run for the door.
If the child is older, as is usually the case with the more difficult children,
and made their own way to the club, without adult supervision, then let them
go. You need to go round to their parent’s house to explain that their
child is no longer in your care.
11. If you transported the child to the club, they will usually run out of the
door, but wait around the corner somewhere. Ask them not to leave, but do not
chase them – this will only make things worse. We once had a child almost
run into a moving car in this situation. When they’ve calmed down a bit,
they will usually return. Explain to them that because they’ve been so
angry they can’t go back into the club.
12. If you think they’ve genuinely calmed down, get them to wait with you
in the discipline area until the end of the club. They can then go home on the
bus with the other children.
13. If you think they are still in a volatile mood, explain to them that it
would be better if they went home to calm down. Get a helper to drive the child
home, with the discipline co-ordinator going in the car too.
14. When a child has shown extreme aggression or rebellion, (as described above)
it’s important that they understand that their actions were out of the
boundaries of acceptable behaviour. Because of this we would normally ban a
child from one or two weeks of Kidz Klub. Threatening this when they are already
angry won’t help anyone. Instead we get their visitor to go and see them
after the club, explaining why they’ve been banned. If possible we also
try to talk to a parent.
15. People often ask if we ever exclude children from the club on a permanent
basis. Although it happens very rarely, the answer is yes. If a child’s
behaviour is continually aggressive, they will be presenting a threat to other
children and, for the safe running of the club, you have to stop them coming.
In these situations we usually ban children first for a half term period, explaining
that when they come back we really hope they’ll have decided to change.
We combine the ban with concerted prayer effort on the child’s behalf.
If no change occurs after the half term ban, we occasionally have to ban children
on a more permanent basis. As you can see from the above scenario, discipline
situations vary greatly from child to child. If you’re having consistent
discipline problems in your Kidz Klub, please feel free to e-mail us for advice.
As previously mentioned, Kidz Klub would simply not work without the Visiting program. It is an essential part of our work. As part of the Kidz Klub vision, every child who comes receives a visit in their home, every single week in term time. This serves five basic purposes:
Relationship
It enable us to build a personal
relationship with the kids. With 600 attending here on a Saturday it would be
easy for the kids to feel like just another number. By visiting them in their
homes, we’re showing that we care. We become their friends, able to support
and encourage them through the struggles of inner-city life. As the famous quote
goes "people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much
you care."
* Families
Many inner-city families see church
as remote and alien to them. By visiting we place ourselves in their world,
building friendship and offering prayer and practical support.
* Perseverance
The kids we deal with can at times
be difficult and challenging. If Kidz Klub were merely a programme it would
be easy to give up. Through visiting we see the awful reality of neglect and
violence that some of them live with. They become real people, with very real
needs. When you’re tired and discouraged, it’s the motivation you
need to keep going.
* Discipline
Visiting means that each child has
one helper who knows them really well. When you’re dealing with large numbers
of troubled kids, these relationships enable you to keep order. A disturbed
child is far more likely to respond to a helper who’s become their friend
than a remote authority figure.
* Relevance
Most of our Kidz Klub team come from
basically middle-class backgrounds, far removed from the inner-city areas in
which our kids live. By visiting them in their homes we place ourselves in their
reality. We know what it feels like to be threatened by teenagers while we walk
down the street and we see the effects that crime and drugs have on their families.
Placing ourselves in their world like this helps us to present Jesus to them
in a way that’s relevant.The Logisitcs
Our Kidz Klub area is divided into visiting zones. A zone can be visited by
one person, a pair or a whole team of people. The size of the zone will vary,
according to the amount of time the visitors have to give. On the same night
each week, usually one or two nights before the club, the visitors will knock
on the doors of all the children in their area who regularly attend the club.
It’s important that they wear a Kidz Klub T-shirt or Sweat shirt and take
a photo ID badge with them.First Visits
Each week at Kidz Klub any new children are registered. The visitors are then
given a list of new children in their area. On the first visit, the visitor
will introduce themselves to a parent, giving them an introductory letter, which
explains a little bit about Kidz Klub. The letter makes it clear that parents
are welcome to come to the club with their children. The visitor will then explain
that each week they are in the area delivering memory verse sheets to all the
children who come to Kidz Klub. These sheets tell the kids about that weeks
activities and enable them to enter the weekly Kidz Klub colouring competition.
(To see a sample memory verse sheet, click here, to download a free sample of
the Kidz Klub UK resources.) We’ll then normally ask for the child, show
them the sheet and have a chat about how they enjoyed their first Kidz Klub.
Regular Visits
Each week the visitors go from door to door, asking for the kids and spending time chatting to them and their families. It’s important that you visit on foot and not in a car. Talking to children from a car window can look highly suspicious and walking gives you the opportunity to get a feel for the area and meet new kids. The memory verse sheet is a great tool. It gives you a reason to be there and something to talk to the children about. Like all relationships, some grow more quickly than others. In some homes you become a family friend in a matter of weeks, others are more wary. The important thing is that you’re there week in week out, extending the hand of friendship. The length of time spent on each door varies from family to family and week to week. Some families will ask you in for a drink, while others prefer chatting on the doorstep. It’s important that you never enter a house unless there’s a parent present. On an average week you’ll probably only spend three or four minutes on each door. But three or four minutes each week for a year soon adds up. Over time, not only will you build a friendship with the kids you visit, you’ll have a chance to pray with their families, when needs arise, and share Jesus with them. You’ll soon become an established part of the community.
Recruiting
You can also use your visiting time
as an opportunity to recruit for the club. In the areas where we work, a lot
of kids play out in the street after school. We stop to chat to kids we don’t
know, telling them about Kidz Klub. If they’re interested in coming, we
ask them to take us to their door, so we can introduce ourselves to a parent
and give them an introductory letter. We find this works well. As long as you’re
not talking to children in a secluded space and have your Kidz Klub ID badge
and T-shirt on, people understand what you’re doing.
We also ask regular Kidz Klub kids to tell us if they have any friends in the area who would like to come. With a parents permission, we get the children to take us to their friends houses, often just further down the same street, so we can talk to them and their families about the club.Visiting is one of the most fruitful things we do. It’s hard to describe, but great to experience. If you’re thinking about starting to visit, why not book onto a Kidz Klub training weekend. You’ll have a chance to shadow our visitors at work, as well as hearing more about what God has done.
Our first attempt at an evangelistic event for parents was a Mums Night Out,
held on Mother's Day in 1998. The basic theme was "Put your feet up, have
a break from the kids" We put on a three course meal, served by the male
members of the team in tuxedos, followed by lively entertainment, with a ten
minute gospel presentation to finish. It was a roaring success, and we've been
aiming to produce a couple of these nights a year ever since.
We've found that a week night is
best, since our parents are less likely to be going out, so it won't conflict.
It may also mean that bigger sisiters/brothers can be coerced more easily into
baby sitting! We charge £4 for a ticket. This ensures that those who say
they'll attend, actually turn up. We cater for about 150 mums, so we need that
kind of security!
We lay our tables with nice table
cloths, and decorate them with flowers and candles. Really pull all the stops
out! We apply to the council for a temporary license to serve and sell alcohol;
our mums wouldn't turn up if it was a dry evening! Their ticket gets them one
glass of wine, and then they pay for any further drinks. Unfortunately a few
always turn up with a bottle of vodka in their handbags, but we're used to that!
We leave it entirely to your own discretion and conscience whether you have
drinks at your own event.
Our last event was based on "Big
Brother", cunningly renamed "Big Mother". After dinner our star
comperes led a thrilling competition of games and tasks for the 8 lucky mums
who made it through the first selection process. The games were straight from
the Kidz Klub compendium and the mums loved every minute of it! Eating jelly
without using your hands, the infamous bog-roll challenge, they screamed the
house down all the way through.
We also run a bingo game, with a
cheap electronic random number bingo machine. Bingo cards can be bought cheaply
from many high street shops. Raffles are highly popular - the task of selling
tickets should be given to someone who has the gift of the gab. This is an excellent
way of raising funds for your club, but do make sure the prizes are worth trying
for! Up here in the north, the ladies love nothing more than a night of bingo
with some karaoke and 'laffs' thrown in; you may have to come up with different
ideas to satisfy the tastes in your region!
At the end of the evening, over coffee,
arrange a guest speaker to give their testimony. We give out response cards
and pens to every mum, and include a 'prayer request' clause. This can be followed
up on your visiting round, and has proved amazingly fruitful!
Our Dad's nights are run slightly
differently. In Liverpool, there are a lot of disinterested and even absent
fathers, so we call this event Dads'n'lads. Its a chance for a kid and his dad
to have some fun together, and we've had comments from both on how much it changed
their relationship.
Our last event had an indoor 5-a-side football challenge, a pool competition,
a darts championship, inflatable Gladiators and even axe-throwing. Best to keep
those last two a good distance apart! We served burgers and sausages in buns,
with a impromptu bar serving beer for the dads and soft drinks for the lads.
Our stars for the night were Tough Talk, the power-lifting evangelists from
the East End of London. We cannot reccomend these guys highly enough.
Remember that a lot of non-christian
men are quite nervous of getting involved with anything to do with church. Very
often they perceive it as 'soft' or 'cissy' so make your Dads'n'lads night hard
core and tough. Once again we gave out response cards, and several dads filled
them out with prayer requests.
These events can be fantastic ways to show non-church people just how excellent the family of God really is. You can also use them as a springboard for Alpha or 'Just looking' classes that your church may be running.
One of the first questions we're often asked when visiting is "When are you coming back to our school?" This section will describe to you how to approach a school to gain their permission to take assemblies, and how to put an assembly together.
It can really help if someone in your church already works in the school. They'll
be able to tell you who to talk to, as well as what sort of reception you can
expect. They can also act as references for you and your team.
The first thing you should do is
write to the headmaster/headmistress, explaining who you are and where you are
from. It helps to suggest that your planned assembly will help the school meet
government targets on RE in schools, and that you're happy to fit in with any
themes they're focussing on in that term. You should include a sample of what
you intend to 'perform' in the assembly, and include that you're going to make
a follow up call later.
Next, call the school and try to
arrange a meeting with the head. You may find that the school will be happy
to let you in straight away, but even so, it is best to do some fact finding
first. You'll need to make clear to the school what sort of things you're planning
to do; for example, some of our local primaries object to us splitting the boys
and the girls for team games. You should discuss with the head what sort of
language they're happy with you using, and topics that they don't want you to
talk about. That way you can be sure that the school is as happy as possible
with what you intend to do. Make sure you ask if they mind if you tell the kids
about your Saturday/Sunday club. Warn the teachers if the assembly is likely
to be lively; you don't have to deal with the hyped-up kids in a classroom afterwards!
By faxing through the assemblies content a day or two before hand each time,
you can safeguard against upsetting the school in any way. But be prepared to
make late changes to your programme if any objections are raised on the day!
Be courteous and respectful at all times.
You may be given opportunity to lead
the children in singing; in my previous church in the south, we had tremendous
success with 'Great great brill brill' and 'Oi, oi, we're gonna praise the Lord!'
Make sure that someone in your team can sing good and sing loud! Guitars are
also helpful and fascinate the children.
Seek to make a regular arrangement
with the school. Aim for coming in once each half term. You should ask for feedback
and don't be surprised if they're over the moon; a lot of teachers dread doing
assemblies, and having people who actually want to give up a morning and come
and do one for them is a Godsend! One of our team members was even asked if
they'd like to join the board of governors of a junior school!
So, you've contacted the school,
you've arranged a date for your first assembly; what are you going to teach
the kids? Our assemblies are all basically slimmed down Kidz Klub sessions.
Be aware, as mentioned before, that you may have to tone down any Gospel based
content, as it is illegal to proselytise in a school. Click
here to download a free sample of one of our assemblies.
Beware of making too much mess in your games. You'll need to leave the hall
just as you found it. Be careful when picking kids to play games. We've had
kids come up to play and then just freeze; if this happens, get the poor kid
back to their seat as quick as possible, and pick some one else. For some reason
this doesn't seem to happen at Kidz Klub, just on assemblies!
We aim to have assemblies last for
20 minutes; your school may allow more or less than this. Make sure you don't
over run, so test your material out first and time it.
One last thing: be careful with infants. Even the sound of a guitar being played
may well be the loudest thing they've ever been exposed to, and tears can flow
very quickly. Warn them if you're going to pop a balloon, or play some music.
Seeing the front row put their hands over their ears nearly brings a tear to
the eye every time!