The Family Workshop, Denmark

In January 2021, The Salvation Army initiated a partnership with Tønder Municipality in Southern Jutland, Denmark, using the name ‘The Family Workshop’, and created a programme for vulnerable families with a particular focus on family life, education and jobs.

The project has the goal of offering 125 adults and 125 children a targeted and family-friendly helping hand over a five-year period. To date, a total of 117 adults and 104 children have been supported by the programme. The work has outgrown the facilities in Tønder and has expanded with a project at the opposite end of the municipality in Toftlund, which has been holding a weekly family workshop since the end of February.

Since June 2022, in conjunction with The Family Workshop, an ‘outpost’ has been established in Tønder where, among other things, a church fellowship is invited to family services on the programme. Between 60 and 80 people attend the monthly family services, and so far seven residents have chosen to become adherents of The Salvation Army.

Women chat as they browse a rail of clothes

The Salvation Army meets a fundamental need, enabling many participants to find new networks through the project. One of the encouraging outcomes is that lots of people are happy to enrol in the project and no one wants to leave when their goals have been met and aftercare has been received, leading to individuals taking the opportunity to participate as a volunteer.

This type of work is not possible without volunteers, and for many who have themselves received support it can be a positive experience to assist others in a vulnerable situation. One of the main goals of the project is to enable 25 per cent of the participants to gain employment and, for 75 per cent of the young people commencing work or education, volunteering helps them to achieve this. There are also 20–30 volunteers from the gymnasium (high school) working with children by helping in the learning café. This allows children and young people to receive encouragement and guidance from the high-school volunteers.

Fascinated by the Christian fellowship

Professionally, Katja Quilty is an experienced social worker in both Denmark and Ireland, and it was by being part of the administration in Sønderborg Municipality, also located in Southern Jutland, that she met the Army in a similar co-creation project many years ago. It was her dream to work for an NGO (nongovernmental organisation) and she has since found that both her professional and spiritual understanding has been expanded through working for The Salvation Army, which is neither remote from the world nor value-neutral, with the result that she decided to become an adherent last year.

‘I have no doubt that it is an advantage for the project and myself that I have experience of being in a similar position, where I sat on the other side of the table in a municipality,’ says Katja. ‘I also find it very informative, using an approach where you work from a conviction.’

Katja continues: ‘I don’t have a Christian background, but I think that the Christian view of humanity is wonderful, that everyone has value and something to contribute. I am fascinated by Christian fellowship and what it means to people.’

In the volunteer contracts, there is a question about whether it means anything to people to be involved with a Christian organisation, and it turns out that it does. Katja openly admits to a personal search for a clarified faith in God: ‘I read a lot of books about Christianity and what it means to people, and as I work with other people’s development, I am in the process of reflection myself.’ Indeed, as part of her personal development a few years ago, Katja chose to be baptised.

‘Faith has also opened up for me gradually, which helps to give me a new view of the world’

Transformation and dreams for the future

Sofie Andresen’s transformation has resulted in a great commitment, where she, as a 20-year-old volunteer, helps daily with practical tasks in the house (the building in which the project is located). And on her own initiative, alongside other young people, she has also founded a local group in the outpost in Tønder connected to The Salvation Army’s Children and Youth Department, where she is chairperson.

In addition to this, she and four other young people from The Salvation Army in Denmark are part of a Nordic leadership development programme called LUP, which has also contributed positively both to her development and reflections on the future. ‘My plan is to train as a deacon and work with vulnerable young people,’ says Sofie. ‘But the longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve started to think that it could also be pretty cool to work for The Salvation Army.’

Sofie adds that it feels a bit like a journey where the destination is not completely determined: ‘This is how I describe my relationship to the Christian faith. It took a long time before I found out that the work here rests on a Christian foundation. Faith has also opened up for me gradually, which helps to give me a new view of the world. My family is also very happy about the development seen in me.’

It took a long time to see the youth café up and running. After getting through the first phase, it has become one of the best groups in the house, and today there are young people involved in the project too.

In Tønder, the project is only about halfway through, while in Toftlund it is well developed. Both places show that in the interaction between public and private social efforts, major steps of faith can be taken that create real transformation in the lives of vulnerable families.