Facilitator Spotlight: Jon

How did you get involved with Kids Matter?

One of the reasons I was interested in doing Kids Matter, as a parent, was because when we had our first child, who’s like a dream child, we thought we were doing really well as parents. And then our second child, who has special needs, came along and I was like, “Oh my goodness, maybe I haven’t got this all together.” It made me realise that so much of parenting is based on an assumption that we’ve got it, and really… life can take unexpected twists and turns.

Parenting is a really important thing but nobody tells you how to do it. It’s just expected that you know what you’re doing.

It’s also really important to have support in your life and a lot of parents don’t have it. We’re very fortunate; I’ve got family who live nearby and enough money, you know, so everything is good for us by and large. But we do still have struggles. And I think those struggles would be even more challenging if say, I was in a single parent family or maybe if I didn’t have my parents nearby to call on. I think life would be actually quite tough and so I was really drawn to Kids Matter.

How has Kids Matter impacted you, as a dad?

I have learnt so much from doing the training and doing the programme, and going through it with other people and getting their ideas. I feel like I’m a better parent.

You’ve since trained as a Kids Matter facilitator. Tell us about that.

I was a little bit worried about doing several days of training on Zoom but it was fantastic. I think it’s probably the best training I’ve done. It was so helpful; it’s equipped me to be a better leader across all the different groups and activities I run, not just Kids Matter. It’s helped me recognise the power of asking good questions.

What would you say to someone else, another church or would-be facilitator, who’s thinking about getting involved?

It’s well worth doing the training. If you were thinking about doing this, I would really encourage you to do it. It’s been a brilliant opportunity to meet some new parents. It’s been a great opportunity to help and serve. And I guess from a faith point of view as well, it’s been a fantastic opportunity to show compassion and to be the hands and feet of Jesus in in this environment in a way that makes sense to people; that accepts people for who they are and is just about journeying and walking alongside them on the journey of parenting.