Ambassadors of Hope

In a nutshell	Over the summer, more than 80 young people from the Sheffield S6 Churches Youth Networkhad an ‘awesome’ time at Contagious HOPE, a weekend filled with workshops and activities including a mini Olympics, bungee run, and sumo suits. Three wonderfully colourful banners were created, with the help of Christian artist Leonie Marklew Barrett, and were then displayed around local schools and churches later in the year. Young people also had the opportunity to work with performance poet Jude Simpson to write and perform their own poems on the theme of hope. The sound and film workshops run by Reel Life were very popular and everyone was dancing ‘Bollywood style’ to the Bangra beat with Kinder Kalsi. The event was supported by dozens of volunteers from local churches who helped steward, prepare and serve the meals, as well as taking part and leading the activities with the young people themselves.
Who has done it?	Sheffield S6 Churches Youth Network
Why do it?	Nick Waterfield, one of the organisers of Contagious HOPE, said, ‘We wanted this weekend to be fun and it was. We wanted young people to know that they can be ambassadors of hope; to their friends, in their families and in their community, we wanted to show young people that not only are they the future, they really are a big part of the present.’
The Outcome	Lizzie Wallace, Community Minister at Wadsley, and a member of the S6 Youth Network said, ‘The event was the first to be organised by S6YN, but after this success, it almost certainly won’t be our last!’