FYT don’t often talk about what we do or ask for money. However I thought I would post a copy of this appeal letter, for all those people who always ask “what do you do?” It is not that long but well worth a read.

Frontier Youth Trust – Punching above our weight!

Dear Friend
I usually write this annual letter to give you a brief update on FYT and to thank you for your support and interest. As ever I write with a sense of gratitude to God and His people for enabling us to continue making our small contribution in ensuring that young people who are at risk are not forgotten and can join us in His upside down Kingdom! Even though Frontier Youth Trust is a relatively small movement it has to be said that our activities endorse the popular view that we ‘punch above our weight’! The many examples in Scripture of God’s ability to multiply things (the widow’s pot of oil, loaves and fish etc) rings so true for FYT! As I reflect on recent months I am thrilled to be able to let you know about some of the exciting initiatives that we are praying will be a rich blessing to young people and youth workers.

We continue to work hard to realise our first objective – “initiate, develop and resource direct work with young people at riskâ€?. We are directly involved on a regular basis in at least 25 youth work projects or conferences where we have a significant amount of responsibility. The Jacob Project is a good example of FYT doing something practical for young people who are leaving Young Offenders units, which seeks to enable them to break the vicious cycle that so often traps them in a world of repeated offending. Our ‘Church at the Edge project’ is actively working with young people to explore and create fresh expressions of church with young people who would normally steer clear of traditional church. You can read more about these two projects in the last edition of FYT News. Our work with young people has brought us into direct contact with over 6,200 young people in the last year!

We are about to give away £1000 of money that we have raised from a special trust to youth groups! We are asking young people to use this funding to raise more funding (parable of the talents!) to establish a Trust fund that will be used exclusively by young people to act on their own concerns, with supported from FYT. We have also developed a web site where young people are expressing their views about the things that matter to them www.ypap.org.uk – ‘Young People as Prophets’. Both of these activities are contributing to make our objective of “Giving a voice to local young people and their communities, enabling them to change those structures and systems that do not promote justice, equality and communityâ€? into a reality.

Our final objective is to “develop research, training, resources and advice based on our direct work� and I am both thrilled and astounded to tell you that in the last year FYT has had face to face contact with nearly 6,000 youth workers and over 2000 youth work managers! This represents hundreds of youth work projects, training events, conferences and festivals and our regular features in publications, as well as several published books in the last year, ensure that we are being effective in sharing what we are learning with others in keeping young people at risk on the agenda.

All of this is made possible by your financial support and prayer and we are so very grateful for this. As ever I would invite you to review your support of FYT, or perhaps to consider supporting us for the first time. Please consider doing this by completing the attached reply slip Death Ride aka Haunted Highway film and returning it using our freepost address. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and again, thank you for your interest and support.

Shalom – Dave Wiles