SHE felt called to help this generation of teenagers to cope with the pressures of modern life – and now she’ll have the chance to do so.

Kathy Bacon has been appointed as the new pioneer youth worker, based at Park Community School in Leigh Park and working in partnership with local churches, subject to DBS. The innovative project aims to offer chaplaincy and mentoring support to students, as well as a chance to consider spiritual issues.

She’ll work with students who already have a Christian faith at the school and will aim to create an after-school worshipping community.

Kathy already volunteers with the ecumenical High Tide youth services, which meet once a month across this area, and as a School Pastor, offering a friendly presence and a listening ear in Miltoncross School in Portsmouth once a week.

She is chair of governors at St Jude’s CofE Primary School in Old Portsmouth, and her current paid role is as part-time PA to the vicar of St Jude’s Church in Southsea. Kathy (pictured above with headteacher Chris Anders and vicar the Rev Jonathan Jeffery) hopes to start her new role in December.

“I’ve volunteered in youth work since I was a teenager myself, and that is my passion,” she said. “I think my sense of calling to work in a secondary school began more than three years ago, at a High Tide youth service, when I felt deeply moved about the needs and aspirations of this generation of teenagers, and felt that the Holy Spirit was nudging me to be a part of meeting those needs and helping to support these young people.”

“I had met a School Pastor at a party, and felt excited about this supportive presence of Christian volunteers in secondary schools. As a parent of teenagers, I knew how much having additional safe adults available at school breaktimes could make a difference. But on that evening it occurred to me that this was something I could be a part of myself. It was a first step of faith to join School Pastors at Miltoncross and helped me to test out my calling.

“As time went on, I felt increasingly called to go beyond just volunteering, even though that is really valuable in itself. I wondered about school chaplaincy, but I saw very few opportunities advertised. Then this role came up, and the job description seemed to describe exactly what was in my heart to try to do.

“Teenagers of this generation are constantly being told that they can do anything. But the weight of such freedom and opportunity can actually be crushing. The contrast between being told what you can do and how to actually put that into practice is often huge. And they are constantly being tested and examined by our education system.

“Added to that are the unrealistic pressures of social media to be high achieving, or sporty, or to have the perfect skin or perfect figure. Body-shaming is something that now affects both boys and girls. And that all comes after today’s teenagers have had their normal lives disrupted by Covid lockdowns that gave them an experience of the world being a frightening place.

“The Christian understanding is that we all have a purpose and a value in this world, regardless of how much we have achieved or how much we have impressed anyone. This gives you a much more secure foundation to build your life on. Regardless of whether or not a young person shares my faith, I want to look them in the eye, see them as a valuable and precious individual in themselves, and communicate this to them.

“As a School Pastor, you can be available for 25 minutes at breaktime, but you always feel like a visitor rather than part of the school. I am excited that this role will allow me to be an integral part of the school community, available to staff and students, in a school that is genuinely interested in the whole person – emotional, social and spiritual, as well as academic.

“My chair of governors role, even though it was at a primary school, rather than secondary, has given me a good understanding of the educational landscape, such as safeguarding, financial pressures, educational policy, and what it’s like for school staff at the moment.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know small groups of pupils, maybe running some extra-curricular activities, and playing a role as part of the school’s team. I’d love to work with those students who already have a Christian faith to create some kind of worshipping community at the school, maybe after the school day.

“And I’m looking forward to getting to know Leigh Park as a place, and the communities at St Francis and St Clare’s Churches. I can already sense that Leigh Park has a strong sense of identity, and in this role I hope to be a champion for Leigh Park and communicate some of the great things that are happening here and the potential for more.”

The impetus for the project came from Park Community School, which identified a ‘youth worker-shaped hole’ in their provision, alongside its existing Foodbank, Pantry, uniform bank and family meals for students who receive free school meals.

Strategic funding from the national Church of England is funding this post for the first five years.