As Father’s Day approaches, and many of us give thanks for the role our fathers have played in our lives, we are acutely aware at e:merge of the number of young people we walk alongside who either don’t have a father figure in their lives, or for whom the relationship with their father has been difficult.
We know we can never fill that void or replace the need for a father, but we do all we can to provide a consistent, trustworthy male role model to the young people we work alongside – both for those who have the best Dad in the world and for those who don’t. Here a few of the ways in which our male youth workers have carried out this role in the last two weeks.
- Picking up and taking a 16 year old to his GCSE exams to make sure he was on time
- Supporting a young lad to access a football training session each week
- Taking an older teenager out for his birthday
- Taking a group to a sport competition – standing on the side lines and cheering them on!
Each of these is a small step in a much larger journey of helping each individual to thrive and fulfil their unique potential.