{"id":143109,"date":"2026-02-06T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143109"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:31:01","slug":"c-of-e-more-than-800-churches-to-benefit-from-600000-investment-to-welcome-children-with-additional-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143109","title":{"rendered":"(C of E) More than 800 churches to benefit from \u00a3600,000 investment to welcome children with additional needs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In pursuit of the Church of England\u2019s priority to grow younger and more diverse, the Strategic Mission and Ministry Board has agreed \u00a30.6m investment with the charity Growing Hope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One in six children in England have additional needs, and 88 per cent of parents of children with additional needs say that attending church is currently or has previously been a challenge. Some people with additional needs have commented that elements of church can be distressing for them, such as lighting, signage and sound.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded in 2018 in King\u2019s Cross, London, and initially focussed on setting up free therapy clinics attached to churches for children with additional needs, Growing Hope will now launch a programme to extend its accessibility training to 375 further churches across England.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, 475 churches will explore the Growing Hope Accessibility Award, which helps churches indicate that they are ready to welcome families with a range of needs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofengland.org\/media\/news-and-press-releases\/more-800-churches-benefit-ps600000-investment-welcome-children-additional-needs\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A charity that provides free therapy for children and young people with additional needs has been awarded \u00a3600,000 by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/STuQ95ecJO\">https:\/\/t.co\/STuQ95ecJO<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/2019444000701227215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 5, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In pursuit of the Church of England\u2019s priority to grow younger and more diverse, the Strategic Mission and Ministry Board has agreed \u00a30.6m investment with the charity Growing Hope.&nbsp; One in six children in England have additional needs, and 88<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=143109\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,324,184,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-church-of-england","category-parish-ministry","category-stewardship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143113,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143109\/revisions\/143113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}