'All Inclusive?' - Invited to Belong:2U

'Invited to Belong:2U'. An Urban Saints event. Includes a full-colour A4 workbook, access to video learning, and an interactive online group training session.

‘Invited to Belong:2U’, the sixth in the Urban Saints series of ‘All Inclusive?’ additional needs training programmes, will guide children’s and youth leaders step-by-step through the six stages of the ‘Invited to Belong’ resource: ‘Inspiration’, ‘Stories of Belonging’, ‘Barriers to Belonging’, ‘Enabling Belonging’, ‘A Vision for Belonging’, and ‘Invited to Belong’.

Unpacking stories of inclusion done well, helping you to know the context and backstory behind these inspiring examples.

Immersing you in the encounters that Jesus had with people with additional needs and highlighting what these encounters teach us today about inclusion.

Guiding you to identify barriers to belonging in your own context.

Equipping you with the skills and knowledge to break these barriers down.

We will work together to craft what your own vision for belonging might say. And we’ll inspire you to reach out to children and young people with additional needs in your own community to invite them to belong.

The accompanying full-colour A4 training workbook is packed with resources, valuable fact sheets, accessibility checklists, and all the training materials used. There is also a playlist of informative videos to support the training content.

You will be fully equipped to take the ‘Invited to Belong’ resource back to your own teams, to work through it with them, and to maximise the benefit of this resource in your settings, enabling children and young people with additional needs to belong.

The 'All Inclusive?' - Invited to Belong:2U training programme includes:

- A comprehensive colour A4 training workbook with a wealth of information and resources sent to each participant in advance.

- Access to a series of videos to explore and learn through, covering a range of topics.

- Finally, a Zoom session including discussion groups, case studies, Q&A, and signposting to further resources to investigate, as we wrap this programme up together.

You can book either just a place on the training (for £10) or a place on the training plus a copy of the 'Invited to Belong' resource pack itself (for £25).

“Thank you so much, Mark, for such inspiring training I am very excited about using it with our teams 😊.”

“Thank you for the training last night. It was so very helpful and has encouraged me greatly. I look forward to seeing how the Lord will work through it. Thank you also for your time sharing your knowledge and experience with us. Keep going in Jesus!”

Feedback from ‘Invited to Belong:2U’ training

About Mark Arnold:

Mark Arnold is the Additional Needs Ministry Director at leading national Christian children’s and youth organisation Urban Saints and is Co-Founder of the Additional Needs Alliance, a vibrant and fast-growing online community. He is an enthusiastic national and international advocate for children and young people with additional (special) needs or disabilities and is passionate about enabling everyone engaging with them to be inspired, trained and well resourced.

Mark is the Churches for All Executive Officer and a Living Fully Network partner, a member of the Council for Disabled Children and the European Disability Network, and writes a monthly additional needs column for Premier Youth and Children’s Work (YCW) magazine. He blogs as the national award winning ‘The Additional Needs Blogfather’, and is father to James who is Autistic and has associated Learning Difficulties and Epilepsy.

To find out more about how Mark and his work can help you, contact him at: [email protected] or @Mark_J_Arnold

Testimonials regarding the 'All Inclusive?' programme:

“You’ve done some amazing work… You do some brilliant training, I’ve been to it, I highly recommend other people to look that up.” Martin Saunders, Director of Innovation and Deputy CEO, Youthscape

“Thank you for the training session this evening. I think it worked really well and was definitely a good substitute for us not being able to be together properly. It was actually really good to see some lovely faces during this lockdown period too. So thank you :)"

"It was really good to receive the online videos and workbook information well in advance of the Zoom meeting. I found that really helpful as it can be tricky fitting everything in at the moment with children being home too. The breakout session during the meeting was a good idea as it gave us the opportunity to chat a bit more freely, so thank you.” Re: ‘All Inclusive?’

“This is a huge thank you for last Saturday's zoom training and all the materials you sent prior to it. As a mainstream large infant school SENCO, I've been finding it surprisingly tricky to adapt what happens in school to our kids church...mostly because I've not thought about implementing as much of the strategy as I should/could have. For example, I use the exact same one page profiles you showed us at school, but embarrassed to say I've never used them in church. So I found it so useful to think practically about the tools I know I'm already fortunate enough to know something about and using them in a church context.

Lots of food for thought for me to share with our team, especially around interest groups vs age groups. Once we can eventually get back in our building for kids church that is! Thanks again. Your passion for and knowledge about inclusion around additional needs shines through and is truly inspirational. You've inspired me!”

“Thank you so much for this morning, that was so incredibly valuable. I really appreciated the way you referred to siblings who are so often forgotten. The meerkat/lions analogy is brilliant, I’ve got a feeling I’m never going to forget that. Also, the focus on the people who are not yet part of our community but need somewhere they can belong. Annnd finally, the need to make sure that we include God - oh yeah! I feel convicted 😄! Thank you so very much for your work.”

Host or Publisher Mark Arnold