I guess I am not the only person in the UK suffering from a degenerative despair of our political system. I was therefore interested to hear of someone who is calling for a renewal of ideology in our political parties, instead of the expedient, sound bite crazy, flip-flopping politics we suffer at the moment. Dr Philip Blond is strange addition to British politics. Dubbed 'The Red Tory', he seems to be adding a new philosophy and ethics to the Conservative Party. If you're interested and are up for a bit of an academic challenge (it certainly stretches my grey matter comfort zones!), take a look at this.

It feels as though a growing number of younger people are exepriencing homlessness.

“One day the arguments at home just got too much. I packed a bag and walked out. Later that night I found somewhere to sleep behind a supermarket. It was uncomfortable but at least it was quiet. I was 16.”

This is not an uncommon story and many more are at risk of becoming homeless in the next few months. This winter Guildford YMCA is again asking people to make a sacrifice for one night to help end youth homelessness in Guildford.

Guildford YMCA not only offers a home to young people, but projects at Plantation in Market Street can offer timely intervention in the lives of those for whom things are spinning out of control.

Guildford YMCA needs to raise vital funds to support such projects. The ‘Sleep£asy’ Campaign involves a sleepout at Guildford Cathedral on Saturday 30 January. Could you give up your bed for a night and sleep under the stars?

Entry costs £10 and there will be hot drinks and food to keep hunger at bay that night, with a welcome breakfast early the next morning. And cardboard boxes will be provided to offer some protection against the cold. People taking part are asked to raise sponsorship from friends and family – the YMCA is hoping to attract around 100 people to sleep out and raise £30,000 from the whole campaign.

If you’re interested in taking part, please visit www.lifechangefund.org.uk/sleepeasy.htm to download an entry form. You can also call Lorraine, the event organiser, on 01483 448796 to request an entry form.

I was incensed when I watched the BBC News recently. There was a report on the rising number of young people who are unemployed. For some reason they decided to show video footage of young people, all dressed in hoodies pulled over their heads and some even with face masks! Presumably the editor felt this was a reasonable portrayal of unemployed young people. I felt it was outrageous stereotyping!

There is a strong, human urge to label people; to group them together as if identifying a biological species; to put them in a box and attach vague generalities – often in a discriminatory way. It seems to make us feel safer. We now know what we are dealing with.

We do this with ‘league tables’. Do we naively think that a school’s performance can be judged on how many students pass 5 GCSE’s grade C and above? In fact, do we really believe that a child’s intelligence can be assessed by how many qualifications they attain? But it’s easy, isn’t it? At least, it’s easy for those making the judgements. It becomes quite different when you are the one being judged!

Some of the young people that we support at Guildford YMCA have been labelled; homeless, chaotic, young offender, drug addict, stupid, etc. They’re identified by their problem and if we’re not careful our relationship can be characterised by that problem.

As a Christian organisation, our starting point is a belief that everyone is part of God’s creation and therefore, undeniably, has unique gifts and abilities. Our starting point is to find what these are and then encourage and support them to develop them. It takes time and patience and sometimes we fail. But when young people do succeed, and discover their true, real identity, it’s the greatest buzz in the world!

Is it just me, or is life becoming more and more complicated?

I was reading a recent exchange of emails regarding the Church’s annual Good Friday walk of witness and was amused to come across a rather sober risk assessment about carrying a wooden cross up the High Street and securing it to the railings outside Holy Trinity Church. I couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if the Roman authorities had required a rigorous risk assessment of crucifixions 2000 years ago.

I spent half a day reading the Core Strategy of Guildford’s Development Framework – a most worthy 134 page document describing how Guildford might change in the period up to 2026. It’s a very important piece of work and I greatly admire how the Council has managed to weave its way through an extremely complicated set of statutory requirements. But it is a breeding ground for TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms)! Although we all invited to respond to the document, I do find myself struggling to find an entry point into which I can inject, what seems to me at least, some common sense.

Things such as; if there is a stipulation that all new developments should comprise at least 60% affordable homes – that is small, single living room dwellings with, at best, a tiny garden, “where will the children play?” (quoting Cat Stevens from the 60’s). Also, how can our planning foster a strong community spirit so that we build ‘social capital’ into our town?

There is an understandable tendency to focus on bricks and mortar. But it seems to me that the one thing that can either make us either deliriously happy or inconsolably miserable is relationships. Relationships are inherently risky - difficult to do a risk assessment on! Although we can’t guarantee a healthy community spirit in our future planning we must ensure that we include places where young people can ‘hang out’ safely and receive the support they need to negotiate this ever complex world.

There is something truly magical about lying down to sleep and looking up at the stars. My wife and I, and fifty other brave souls, did just this on the night of 31 January. At around 3 in the morning we looked up and there, perfectly framed by the roof and buttresses of the Cathedral was the Plough – that saucepan shaped constellation which if you pick the right two stars will point you to the North Star, a rather faint speck of light but which fortunately has little competition and so can be fairly easily picked out.

As I looked up I remembered my father introduced me to the Plough, and to Orion, Cassiopeia and my favourite, the Pleiades, a small question mark hanging in the winter sky. My father loved the stars and took great joy in describing the different types, where and when to find them, and especially the amazing distances involved. I suppose it was the first time I can remember having a strong sense of awe – an overwhelming feeling that I was so tiny in comparison with the universe and yet, in the very attention my father gave to me, very significant.

So why were my wife and I, and fifty others, sleeping under the stars on a freezing January night at Guildford Cathedral? We were trying to raise the profile of young homeless people, as well as raising a load of money!

1 in 14 young people are likely to experience homelessness and we house quite a few at Guildford YMCA. But as I looked up at the stars and wondered how many young people were doing just the same – because they have no choice - all I could think about was my father and the focussed attention he gave to me. The sadness is that many of those homeless young people have probably never experienced that kind of attention from a father.

Why are we more concerned about people being homeless at this time of year?

I guess the cold weather raises the stakes. In fact Guildford Borough Council is required to make special housing provision if the weather forecast predicts 3 consecutive nights of zero degrees or less.

I suppose we also have an image in our minds that at this time of year people should be warming themselves by a blazing fire in the bosom of their family, opening presents around the Christmas tree whilst supping mulled wine.

Perhaps some also recall the Christmas story where there was ‘no room at the inn’ for Joseph and a heavily pregnant Mary. Could we still be paying some kind of corporate penance for our lack of hospitality afforded to the Saviour of the World?

Whatever the reason, I am always happy to make the most of a seasonal opportunity! I like to remind people that whatever noble aspirations we might have for young people none of them are achievable if they don’t even have a roof over their head. Guildford YMCA provides a home for many young people every night of the year, and a growing number of them are growingly younger! We house around 70 homeless young people over a year and about 30 of them will be 16-17 years of age.

To raise awareness of youth homelessness we are delighted that the Dean has agreed to us holding a Sleep Out at Guildford Cathedral on 31 January 2009, the night before Homelessness Sunday. We are calling it Sleep £asy and as the typo indicates we’re aiming to raise a good deal of cash too! It won’t be warm or comfortable but you can help us make a difference to the lives of young people by joining us. To sign up please contact Lorraine Galliers on 01483 448796. If sleeping out isn’t a practical option but you would like to make a donation you can either send a cheque payable to Guildford YMCA, to Y Centre, Bridge Street, Guildford GU1 4SB or you can donate online at www.lifechangefund.org.uk/sleepeasy.htm.

As you make your final preparations for Christmas, do please spare a thought for those who don’t have the same advantages or family support. And most of all, sleep well this Christmas!

I hope my friends and colleagues who work for charities and community organisations won’t be too offended if I say that sometimes we are rather a whingeing, moaning bunch of people!

There can be plenty to complain about. Our greatest concern is probably that the demand for our services is growing. A commercial company would rejoice at this! But unfortunately most of our young clients can’t afford to pay for them, and so we need to find our funding elsewhere.

Most charities get some form of grant from local government but more recently these have been turned into ‘contracts’ which, we are told, are better as they provide more security – I confess I don’t hear that argument echoed by fellow voluntary organisations. Especially as we now have to ‘bid’ for these contracts. This favours larger charities, or private companies who seize the chance of getting a slice of the action.

There is also a huge concern that in a climate of bank bailouts and possible tax cuts, there’s not going to be much money left in the public purse! Which means less funding from statutory organisations. Add to that losses on the stock market which means that Grant Making Trusts won’t have much to distribute – the financial outlook is bleak!

But thankfully there is a third source of funding to support the growing demands for our services – the Great British Public! Guildford YMCA is to benefit from a concert being performed by the Guildford Chamber Choir on 29 November at Holy Trinity Church. We’re also running a Christmas campaign to raise awareness and funds, for youth homelessness. Our Sleep £asy (typo intentional!) campaign will culminate in a ‘sleep out’ at Guildford Cathedral on Saturday 31 January. All these and more events can be found on our fund raising website http://www.lifechangefund.org.uk/

Although times are hard, the YMCA has been serving young people for over 160 years through two world wars and harder times than these. And we’re planning to be around for a lot longer yet!