Do they have the support they need? Illuminating the experiences and perspectives of Christian youth, children and family workers in the UK

Holmes, Sarah E and Richards, Sam (2026) Do they have the support they need? Illuminating the experiences and perspectives of Christian youth, children and family workers in the UK. Journal of Beliefs & Values. ISSN 1361-7672

Text Do they have the support they need response to reviewers anon Nov 2025.docx - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (315kB)

Abstract

Against the backdrop of falling volunteer numbers in churches, our research examines perceptions of organisational support by UK ministry workers (paid and voluntary) in the sector of youth and children’s ministry. Analysis of data collected through an online survey from paid workers (n=326), and volunteers (n=312) revealed that support could be in the form of tangible aspects and approaches, but these actions are either upheld or undermined by the general ethos and feeling as to whether the ministry sector is valued and prioritised. Support is complex and varied but needs attention in order to retain existing volunteers involved in this ministry sector.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2026 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
Depositing User:	Sarah Holmes
Date Deposited:	26 Jan 2026 14:52
Last Modified:	26 Jan 2026 14:52
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4828

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