Friends launch new way of connecting
Subscribers to the DQ newsletter can now be put in touch with their local Quaker Meeting
A new initiative launched by ‘Discovering Quakers’ is proving more successful than they dared hope, said Friends.
‘Discovering Quakers’ (DQ) is a grassroots Quaker initiative which has been raising awareness of Quakerism through social media advertising for the last two years.
‘When enquirers sign up to receive the DQ newsletter, they can now ask to be put in touch with their local Quaker Meeting,’ Helen Drewery, a member of the DQ team, told the Friend. ‘This new scheme is called DQ Connect. So long as the Local Meeting has joined the scheme, DQ Connect links up the enquirer with the named contact in the Meeting. (If the Meeting hasn’t yet joined, only basic information can be given to the enquirer.)’
Originally expecting around twenty requests a week, the group is attracting around fifty people a week wanting to contact a Meeting. So far, just over half of Local Meetings are in the scheme, accounting for about two thirds of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)’s membership (as bigger Meetings have been quicker to join). ‘More sign-ups of Meetings are always welcome, as are donations,’ added Helen Drewery. ‘The basic running costs of Discovering Quakers are £32,000 a year – though if they get more than that, they will be able to do more advertising and reach more people who currently know nothing about Quakers, but might find that we are just what they’ve been wanting in their lives.’
With a mailing list of 3,400 enquirers, DQ is a small voluntary team of Quakers, supported by some professional expertise. It has recently registered as a charity, and became a Quaker Recognised Body at October’s Meeting for Sufferings. After start-up funding from BYM, it is now seeking funds from Meetings and individuals to keep the work going.
Helen Drewery added: ‘It’s a joy to be part of a team which is being so creative and effective at reaching new people. We can’t yet know how many of the folk who ask to be put in touch with a Meeting will actually cross the threshold, let alone how many will stay, but even if only a small proportion do, we will have made a big difference to their lives. And we’re undoubtedly spreading knowledge about Quakerism and Quaker values to thousands of people.’
DQ has two websites: one for enquirers (www.discoveringquakers.org.uk>) and one for Friends and Meetings (meetings.discoveringquakers.org.uk).
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