Top Church Training is a registered charity whose overall focus is to help people become more involved in community life and progress with their lives. We aim to help others develop skills &attributes that will enable them to make a valuable contribution to society through employment, as well as increase social participation. We work predominantly within Dudley Borough, but can also offer our services to those living outside the area.
Top Church Training was first registered as a charity in March 1997. Young people were literally knocking on the door of the vicarage at Top Church in Dudley for help and support. Their needs were too complex for the then Vicar and so, along with his Parish Council, he set up a stand-alone project which could provide one-to-one support to those most in need.
Even though the project was born out of Christian church community, we are not a religious group and are open to all denominations & beliefs.
One of our projects is called The Connect Project and Top Church training use the ‘The ConnectProject’ as a trading name.
We offer a bespoke 1-2-1 mentoring and support for those individuals who need it, focusing on overcoming barriers, working with each individual to achieve their goals through accessing the many opportunities that we offer or can help them access. Many of these are at the most basic level.
We run individual and group sessions in order to address their lack of hope in life and their mental health/well-being: to build confidence and self-esteem and to provide them with skills to raise life aspirations.
We run a café placement scheme and an office administration scheme to provide work experience and to educate those involved in healthy eating and cooking on a budget. Participants in these activities can access our café/admin work placements where we focus on building their confidence/self-esteem and social skills to prepare them to return to education or training and then possibly leading them into volunteering or even employment.
Additionally, through our men’s and women’s group sessions and activities at the café, we bring people together helping to reduce their isolation and loneliness resulting in them having improved social skills so that they become enabled to access services by themselves.
