The Church City Mission

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The Church City Mission

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“Room for everyone” We believe in the concept of room for everyone because we want everyone in our cities to experience respect, justice and care.

We believe in providing room for everyone because the greatest challenges we see around us are exclusion, isolation and destructive dependency.

“Room for everyone” also means that everyone is needed – because we wish to invite people’s participation and invoke a sense of community.

“Room for everyone” allows us all to strengthen our belief in freeing up resources and energy.

The Church City Mission in Oslo

The Church City Mission is one of the largest humanitarian faith-based organisations in Norway. The Church City Mission is a diaconal foundation established in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1855. The Church City Mission in Oslo currently has approximately 1150 full-time and part-time employees, and even more volunteers, involved in around 45 different programmes and institutions, providing a wide range of professional expertise. The foundation works in accordance with the confessional basis of the Church of Norway.

People from different age group and a wide range of social backgrounds are helped through our work and the services we provide. We offer everything from preventive and caring initiatives for children and adolescents to residential and treatment facilities for the elderly, from low-threshold projects at street level to specialist institutional health services providing treatment for substance dependency and mental illnesses. In addition, we provide residential programmes and meeting-places, church service fellowships and multicultural activities, employment initiatives and a broad base of volunteers.

THE CHURCH CITY MISSION

Respect, justice and care

The Church City Mission’s vision is that people in the city shall experience respect, justice and care.

Individuals are of equal worth yet different. We wish to work for a society where every person is met with respect and an expectation: respect for his/her individuality and an expectation of what that individual can do. No one is just what we can see.

In all its work, the Church City Mission shall seek to obtain and provide resources and opportunities, and to help foster and trigger courage and the ability to master one’s own situation.

Detect, relieve, change

The Church City Mission’s duties are comprehensive and include detecting and relieving violations, injustice and distress, and by helping to remove the causes of injustice. We perceive our mission and our entire operation as being part of the church’s diaconal work in the metropolis.

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The Church City Mission in Norway

The Church City Mission is present in the form of independent foundations established in most major cities in Norway: Oslo, Tromsø, Bodø, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Tønsberg, Drammen and Fredrikstad. The head office of the Church City Mission in Oslo is situated at Tollbugata 3. The Church City Mission is also involved in the following cities: Haugesund, Stord, Kragerø, Larvik, Kongsberg, Lillestrøm, Sarpsborg and Halden.

Broad cooperation

The Church City Mission cooperates extensively with public health and social authorities at both the municipal and central government level. In addition, we collaborate closely with other church and humanitarian organisations, and cooperate to an increasing extent with businesses under the heading “Corporate Social Responsibility”.

The Church City Mission is a member of Eurodiaconia, a European network for diaconal social and health care providers.

In addition , the Church City Mission is a member of the Nordic and European network of City Missions.

The Church City Mission is also involved in international friendship work, e.g. with church organisations in Guatemala.

Financial resources

Public sector contributions account for four-fifths of the Church City Mission’s total budget. The remaining amount is financed through fund raising, revenues from funds, bursaries and project funding. In December each year, we arrange a “Light in Darkness” campaign, consisting of fund raising, various Christmas events and the provision of different forms of support and contributions to individuals requiring assistance in the metropolis.

The Church City Mission sees its mission in a global perspective too. This means that we share and glean experience and expertise in international networks and help ensure that a diversity of cultural expressions can meet, challenge and inspire one another.

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Photo: Atle Thingnes Briseid

Volunteers

Housing

Volunteering fosters solidarity.

We meet people who need a place to live or support and assistance in order to master everyday life in their homes.

Around 1500 Church City Mission volunteers assist us in our operations and make the city of Oslo and its suburbs a more generous place to live, with “room for everyone”.

Some volunteers use their professional expertise, while others learn something completely different. Some people have plenty of time on their hands – others have very little time available. Common to all of them is that they give of themselves and their time, thus making a positive difference for both themselves and other people.

All volunteers sign a contract after clarifying mutual expectations, and they are followed up with courses and adjustments.

We work to establish permanent housing for vulnerable groups in the housing market, and develop various reinforcement initiatives that enable individuals to master their housing situation and retain their homes. “Bybo” is the Church City Mission’s unit for social housing development.

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Work and activity

drug addiction

Unemployment has the harshest effects on those groups in society that are most vulnerable: Disabled individuals, people with social difficulties and health problems, young people with limited education and groups of immigrants.

The way out of drug addiction is a difficult and long one. Some people wish to rid themselves completely of their addiction, while others need help to reduce the amount of drugs they use while still enjoying a worthy life.

Our employment-related projects offer working communities and meaningful tasks for individuals prevented from taking part in occupational life, as well as retraining and rehabilitation programmes for people with occupational capabilities. The Church City Mission also operates a direct employment programme providing pay on the day, in the form of jobs for people with dependency problems. Not everyone is capable of remaining in paid employment for long periods of time. At times activity-based programmes and assignments in a social community can be of great value.

The Church City Mission has a great deal of experience and professional expertise in dealing with drug addiction, and today offers around 100 places for the treatment of drug users and their families. The Church City Mission in Oslo also operates an open-all-hours outreach programme in drug-related environments, aimed in particular at people with both drug problems and mental health issues.

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Mental health care Due to mental illnesses, many people are unable to complete their schooling and to function in occupational life, and are thus unable to establish themselves in ordinary adult life.

The Church City Mission provides help to master such events at an after-care centre for young adults, and offers psychiatric treatment for adolescents.

Children, adolescents and families Everyone needs someone, sometimes.

For the Church City Mission, it is important to prevent crises and conflicts by being good conversational partners for children and adolescents at risk. Prevention requires knowledge, confidence and courage. In affluent, modern Norway, we also see that thousands of children come from homes with such limited financial means that this affects both adults and children.

The Church City Mission offers a variety of services for children and adolescents, ranging from short-term lowthreshold programmes to year-long follow-up projects in collaboration with child welfare services.

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Ageing and culture The Church City Mission’s projects for the elderly include preventive work as well as the provision of practical assistance, care, treatment, cultural experiences and volunteer work.

The aim of these initiatives is to help individuals to feel that their identity, dignity and own resources are being valued.

At nursing homes and senior citizen centres we work to ensure that users and residents are met with openness and respect as to how they wish to live. We see that cultural experiences help trigger spontaneity, laughter, activity, understanding and a sense of community.

Church City Mission institutions for the elderly focus on open cooperation with local communities.

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Projects for sex workers Both in Norway and abroad, selling sex entails major life challenges, social rejection, organised crime and human trafficking.

The Church City Mission provides shelter, work-related projects, guidance and care measures for both women and men who have experience in selling sex. By means of outreach and follow-up programmes, we wish to assist women and men to gain greater control over their own lives.

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HIV For most people with HIV, living means experiencing fear of rejection and withdrawal from one’s surroundings.

The Church City Mission offers space and time for people to meet others in the same situation. We provide opportunities for recreation and rehabilitation, and we offer experienced professionals as collaborative partners, mentors and therapists. We wish to offer assistance to everyone affected in one way or another by the HIV virus.

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Being a church

meeting-places

The Church City Mission wishes to be a church with room for everyone, a church that speaks out on behalf of social outcasts, and a church that fosters the courage to live one’s life, and to encourage faith and hope.

Other social projects

We practise this by means of conversations, the lighting of candles, rooms for contemplation, and the use of old and new rituals alike. We wish to help people to experience the church as something that is accessible and close at hand, by among other things providing street services, open churches, and by paving the way for diaconal services in contexts outside ordinary church buildings.

Many people in the city display their vulnerability on the open streets as drug users, and as fatigued and often stigmatised individuals. Others are less visible but nevertheless wage their own battles with loneliness and isolation.

Everyone dreams of improving their everyday life. By providing outreach projects, health services, coffee shops and activity houses, the Church City Mission offers contact, food, rest, guidance and a sense of community. In meeting people faced with difficulties in the city, we wish to show individuals respect for the life they lead – and the choices they make.

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Comments by participants, guests and patients: “A single moment’s experience of dignity is worth as much as time-consuming change.”

“What gave me strength was the good atmosphere.

I found faith in myself. Now I want to prove to myself and to others that I can achieve things.” ”It is so good to be here. You take us for what we are. And you can see everything about us.”

“Courage to live and courage to believe.”

“Beyond right and wrong there is a landscape – I will meet you there.”

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THE CHURCH CITY MISSION

Symbols The Church City Mission uses the following symbols: Cobblestones – a sign of everyday life and the realities of

the street

Light – a sign of hope, faith and prayer Roses – a sign of love and fellowship The cross – the Christian expression of God’s presence in this world, a sign of hope and a new life.

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contact us Church City Mission Address: Tollbugata 3, NO-0152 Oslo, Norway Tel.: +47 22 36 55 00 E-mail: firmpost@bymisjon.no www.bymisjon.no Donor account: IBAN NR: NO 32 70 11 05 18593 Swift: DNBANOKKXXX

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Photo: Torstein Ihle, Translation: Kevin M.J. Quirk, Print: Prinfo Unique

Kirkens Bymisjon | Tollbugata 3, 0152 Oslo | Phone: + 47 22 36 55 00 | www.bymisjon.no/oslo | E-mail: firmapost@bymisjon.no