18-19 Reaching Out:issue 1 27/8/08 15:45 Page 16
Action & Outreach
Reaching out to families
What can your Mothers’ Union group do to
support families in your area?
A
s Mothers’ Union, we want to offer effective support to
families in our communities, but sometimes it’s not
always that easy to know what would be best to do.
Margaret Edwards, Diocesan President of Gloucester, felt
she wanted to find a way to encourage members to look
afresh at the range of outreach work being undertaken, to
check that it was relevant, effective, and that it truly
reflected the ethos of Mothers’ Union. Margaret heard about
the new Mothers’ Union resource, Reaching Out, and decided
to try it out!
What is Reaching Out?
4 What work would we like to do in the
Reaching Out is a five-step process future?
introduced to help members listen to and,
with God’s help, respond to community 5 What do we need to do next, to get from
needs and issues by establishing Mothers’ where we are now to where we would like
Union initiatives. In essence, it’s a series of to be?
five questions members can discuss
together, at the local, deanery or diocesan
Reaching Out in Gloucester
level, to help them identify what the top In February, Margaret set up a Reaching Out
priorities should be: day for all her diocesan trustees and project
team leaders. She invited a member of the
1 What do we like about where we live? clergy, who is also a Mothers’ Union
What are the needs or issues facing our member himself, to facilitate the day. They
communities? spent the time in small groups, using
activities from the Reaching Out resource
2 Of these, which are the most appropriate pack that helped them explore the ‘five
for Mothers’ Union to meet? questions’.
3 How are we already meeting any of these Margaret felt the day they spent together
needs or issues in our current work? was invaluable. She explains: ’We identified
16 www.themothersunion.org
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