On 20th March 2004, The Salvation Army launched a new sub-brand for young people and young adults. It’s the result of over a year’s worth of research and development undertaken by The Salvation Army to express the heart and passion of The Salvation Army in youth culture. ‘ALOVE is for young people and young adults who want to live out what it means to be ‘The Salvation Army’ amongst their generation,’ explained Russ Rook (Director at ALOVE UK).

ALOVE is also the identity for The Salvation Army’s new youth ministry strategy for the UK and Republic of Ireland, which they launched in January 2003. In the past 30 years, the UK Church has seen significant decline in the number of young people that engage with faith and this has certainly be true for The Salvation Army. Despite numerous hot spots of excellence in youth ministry, the ‘Young Persons Register’ had fallen from 120,000 in 1950, to fewer than 20,000 in 2000.

‘It’s statistics like these that scream out to us that young people’s needs aren’t being met by the church,’ says Russ. ‘Over fifty years ago, young people were like miniaturised versions of their parents, but half a century on, young people refuse to be labelled as ‘little big people’ or ‘juniors’. Youth culture has been born and the church has been struggling to get to grips with it ever since. Many of our organisational structures still resemble the old order, but young people don’t identify with them. The Salvation Army wants to address this.’

This statement has certainly rung true in the research The Salvation Army has undertaken amongst young people (both within and external to The Salvation Army) in developing the sub-brand. One 11-year-old male from Manchester said ‘Sometimes I don’t understand why they have so many rules…they are a bit old-fashioned. They are trying to become modern, but they are keeping all the rules the same… It’s different to whenever it was set up so I don’t see why it doesn’t change.’

Yet despite the frustrations, the research clearly showed that young people really identify with the purpose of The Salvation Army. When describing what makes it distinctive words like ‘Compassion’, ‘Social Action’, ‘Mission’, ‘Radicalism’, ‘Community’ and ‘Inclusion’, came up time and time again. As an integral part of The Salvation Army, ALOVE will seek to empower and resource young people to live out these words amongst their generation. ‘We’re not interested in bumping up the numbers,’ said Russ, ‘but we are interested in addressing the needs of a new generation. The launch of ALOVE is the launch of a new chapter of Salvation Army history – and it’s going to be written by young people.’