Quakers at the peace demonstration against Trident in Leeds. Photo: Robert Keeble.
Quakers in Yorkshire
David Rubenstein reports on a meeting of Friends
Quakers in Yorkshire met in Leeds on Saturday 16 January with an attendance of nearly one hundred and a full agenda. In the morning we had reports from junior holidays, the holiday school for older children that was held at Bootham School in August with seventy participating youngsters, and Easter Settlement, which had sixty-three settlers, among whom were eleven children who produced a wonderfully competent video outlining their varied activities during the weekend.
There was also a report from the Quaker Outreach Committee, which has mounted a programme of participation in fairs and festivals and has plans for workshops and talks. We were told of the success of all these activities and that the gaps in voluntary staffing had been filled in the past year.
At the end of the lunch break the vast majority of participants took part in a short peace demonstration. Trident is a subject close to the hearts of Quakers in Yorkshire, as elsewhere, and there was much enthusiasm for the demonstration.
In the afternoon we had two longer presentations. The first was on the activities of Breckenborough School, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, given by Graham Ralph. Graham was formerly deputy head of Bootham School and is now Breckenborough’s chair of governors. Breckenborough was founded in 1934 and has been at its present location since 1958. The school is funded through the fees paid by local authorities to place boys there. It is a special needs school, catering for boys who suffer from autism or Asperger’s syndrome. There are fifty-five students, aged between nine and nineteen, at any one time and classes are normally limited to four. All teachers have the required special needs training and receive additional training while in post. Academic standards are high, both at GCSE and A level, and some students have gone on to university. Post-education careers are varied and include both manual and white-collar occupations. Graham made an appeal for new governors from among the Friends present.
The final session was devoted to Circles of Support and Accountability, more particularly the Yorkshire, Humberside and Lincolnshire (YHL) section. Our speakers were Tammy Banks, YHL’s chief executive officer, and Denise Cann, a trustee and volunteer. Circles of Support was founded by Mennonites in Canada in 1994. It was brought to the UK through a project initiated by Quaker Peace & Social Witness and was ‘floated’ as an independent charity in 2008. YHL was founded in 2011. The organisation provides sex offenders who have sought help to live a normal, non-offending life with a supporting group of volunteers. Its growth and success rate are startling.
Since its inception YHL has attracted 142 volunteers. Volunteers give over 4,000 hours freely each year. There has only been one reconviction among the sixty-four former prisoners who have taken part. However, despite the importance of volunteers in the organisation and a certain amount of statutory funding, YHL is desperately short of money. More volunteers are wanted; more money is crucial.
The day ended with a munificent tea, for which Yorkshire Quakers are famous.
