NB: Initially Breathe is falling under the purview of Canterbury Vineyard Christian Fellowship and will be operating under that charity number. However, within 6 months to a year we aim to be registered as an independent charity.
Mission statement:
To be a place where women’s hearts are welcomed, valued and nourished, that supports and embraces all that it means to be female. To offer impartial, unbiased, non-judgemental support to enable women to make informed choices with personal integrity.
To support women (and their partners where possible) in unplanned (or difficult) pregnancy situations.
What Breathe will offer:
1. A premises like a café with sofa’s, free hot drinks & cakes and with additional private areas for confidential appointment
2. All-age unplanned (or difficult) pregnancy support, post-abortion and miscarriage / baby loss support for women (and their partners where possible)
3. Girls work:
- Mentoring
- Workshops in schools:
- Body image & self esteem
- Emotional aspects of sexual activity
- Dealing with emotions (& the link between this & drug / alcohol use)
4. Young parent support:
- Antenatal courses
- Postnatal / parenting courses
- Signposting / referrals to other agencies for support and / or advice as appropriate
Breathe will not:
- Use "scare tactics" or pressure
- Show abortion slides or pictures
- Picket or harass abortion clinics
- Lobby for legislative changes or engage in the public debate on abortion
Why Canterbury needs Breathe:
According to the Dept of Health, in 2009 in the Eastern and Coastal Kent area there were 2,248 abortions. Despite these high numbers, there are only 2 part-time services offering pregnancy crisis and post abortion support – both about 45 minutes travel away. Currently in the Canterbury area there is:
- Nowhere for women in unplanned (or difficult) pregnancy situations to get one-on-one support sessions exploring options and related feelings with trained advisors
- No local specialist support for women with post-abortion concerns or after baby loss/miscarriages
- A shortage of appropriate antenatal & postnatal courses
- No support for teenage mums who have had their babies removed by Social Services
Additionally, 92% of girls questioned wanted to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance (primarily their weight) in the 2005 Dove survey. Research is showing this to be an escalating problem. However promoting healthy self esteem & body image is not compulsory in the National Curriculum and neither is the emotional results of sexual activity; and therefore both are often omitted. We plan to do address these emotional aspects of life.
General objectives to achieve:
- Collate a team of volunteers from Churches all over Canterbury
- Train the team up in line with individual interests / skills and what Breathe will offer
- Provide a free, impartial, unbiased and non-judgmental service for Canterbury and the surrounding area
- Work with CareConfidential to provide the service
- Not hide the fact that the service is provided by Christians
Objectives to achieve in the next 6 months:
- Get funding for set-up and ongoing costs by applying to statutory funding, grant awarding bodies and charitable trusts
- Find, secure and decorate a premises
- Open Breathe to the public to provide mentoring and pregnancy crisis support
- Promote Breathe in Canterbury and ask for volunteers and regular financial givers
- Ensure all volunteers are clear on the vision / values / ethos of Breathe
- Offer any relevant training to new volunteers as appropriate (eg: mentoring)
- Become affiliated with CareConfidential and take referrals for crisis pregnancies via the CareConfidential web portal
Objectives to achieve in the future:
- Train volunteers to offer post-abortion / miscarriage / baby-loss support
- Offer post-abortion / miscarriage / baby-loss support at the centre
- Put together a volunteer schools-work team and offer this service to all local secondary schools
- Start to offer the antenatal / postnatal / parenting courses to pregnant young women (and their partners where possible) and young parents in the local area
How you can help:
Join the Breathe team by volunteering in the following areas:
- Train to offer pregnancy crisis support
- Become a mentor for girls the using Breathe
- Help deliver Breathe workshops in schools
- Help with creating and / or delivering Breathe courses
- Clean at the Breathe premises (when we have one)
- Become a prayer partner - give us your details and we’ll email you regular prayer points (all anonymous and confidential)
- Become a regular financial supporter - complete the ‘Giving financially to Breathe' form and pop it in the post box in the Warehouse and we’ll email you regular progress reports
How to keep in touch and follow our progress:
- Email us with any queries or offers of support
- Visit our Youtube channel to see some of the Breathe team talking about Breathe and the pregnancy crisis training they’ve completed
