Reaching out 

We are involved in or have links with our local community and the wider world in a variety of ways:

At home

Kick’s vision is to transform young people’s lives with God’s love, through sport and support. It began at HTR as a church-based charity with the aim of providing an alternative form of Sunday School to young people ‘where they are’ on a Sunday morning - on a football pitch. Since then it has blossomed into an independent charity, using values-driven physical education, street dance, mentoring, chaplaincy in schools and community KICK Academies as ways of engaging with young people, helping them to develop positive self-esteem, social responsibility, and life skills. These include the concepts of teamwork, leadership, self-control, making good choices, developing aspirations and respect. It also trains churches to run Kick Academies within their community which allows them to engage with local young people and share the Gospel message with them. Kick has grown national rapidly, engaging over 25,000 young people a week across over 120 schools and 30 Kick Academies throughout the UK. You can find out more here. 

Riverbank Trust’s vision is to see vulnerable families transformed by the love of Jesus, empowered by friendship and sharing community with others. It aims to equip the church community - both individually and corporately - to draw alongside families in need and walk alongside them, sharing God’s love with them through both practical support and caring friendship. Like Kick, it began as an HTR initiative but is now an independent charity with very close links to us. Riverbank now supports families in our community through school and church-based groups, one to one befriending and needs-based groups such as parenting programmes and support for families with children with special educational needs. Some of our church members are on Riverbank’s staff team and others are involved as volunteers. You can find out more here.

LVA Trust teaches RSE (relationship and sex education) in schools and other youth settings in South West London. Its core belief is that we are all loved, valued and able (LVA), and its aim is to encourage positive self-esteem and healthy relationships. At present it teaches in four London Boroughs in year groups 5-13, as well as working with young people through small groups and one-to-one mentoring. Its sessions are designed to ensure young people receive consistent and age-appropriate information. It works in partnership with teachers, school pastoral teams and other external providers to ensure national guidelines are met. It also equips parents to guide their children through adolescence. You can find out more here.

The Vineyard Community is a charity with community at its heart. It is dedicated to helping vulnerable individuals overcome personal crises, and the community at large build stronger bonds. It runs crisis and social inclusion services from The Vineyard Community and six other locations in the Borough. Every day it helps individuals reconnect with society. It offers support at the point of crisis and during recovery, and has extensive experience resolving issues related to homelessness, addiction, loneliness and mental health. You can find out more here.

Several of our members serve as Street Pastors. Pioneered in London in 2003, Street Pastors offer reassurance, safety and support through listening, caring and helping, working together with other partners to make communities safer. Street and Prayer Pastors play an active part in strengthening community life and working for safer streets, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings. Well over 200 towns and cities around the UK now have a Street Pastors team. Including Prayer Pastors, management teams and trustees, many thousands of volunteers are associated with the Street Pastors network. You can find out more here.

The Gift of Blessing Trust aims to make deeply rooted disciples through:

• Ministry Events - its Director, Kate Patterson , a former member of our church, speaks in churches, prisons and at outreach events, sharing God’s love, making Scripture accessible and ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit
• Training - equipping leaders and speakers to meet the challenge of sharing Jesus and the saving power of the Cross in the 21st century
• Writing - opening up God’s word, both online and in print, to empower God’s people, especially those who will never open a heavy theological book but still want to go deeper
• The Wisdom of the Elders - providing ways for those with years of wisdom to share their depth of experience with the younger generation through blogs and podcasts or as guest speakers.

We have strong links with Holy Trinity CE Primary School in Carrington Road in Richmond. Members of our Staff Team lead Collective Worship at the School each week, and we welcome the School to our church for Services and special events, particularly at Christmas and Easter. Several church members are school governors, or are involved with lunchtime and after-school clubs. Others support children voluntarily by helping with activities like sewing and reading. Many of our families have children at the School. You can find out more about the School here.

Overseas

Launched in 2007, Karis Kids brings hope to children orphaned by AIDS by strengthening the capacity of local families to care for them. Through Karis Kids, members of Holy Trinity support families in a slum area of Kampala, Uganda to enable them to care for orphaned children within their own families. We have developed relationships with our link families through mutual letter writing, visits and support. Through the charity families have access to healthcare, education and other practical support. As a result of our involvement we have also developed strong links with one of their local churches, St. Peter’s, Wandegeya. You can find out more here.

Open Doors is an international ministry working in over 60 countries, serving persecuted Christians and churches worldwide. It supplies Bibles so that persecuted believers can be nourished with God's Word, trains church leaders so that they can stand strong for Jesus, provides practical support and emergency relief so that people can live independent, fulfilled lives, and supports Christians who suffer for their faith so that their voices can be heard. It also seeks to mobilise the church in the UK and Ireland to serve Christians living under religious persecution. You can find out more here. 

Sarah Casson works with SIL, a worldwide Christian organisation whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy and aid minority language development. She has served God in Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), teaching translation at Shalom University and working directly on translating the Bible into local Congolese languages. She is currently drafting translation handbooks in French for translators working in remote locations in Africa, who have few biblical aids and exegetical resources that they can access in French. Previously a member of our church, Sarah is now based in Sheffield.

Operation Mobilisation (OM) has been working around the world for over 60 years, inspiring and equipping Christians to share God’s love. Today, more than 5,000 OM workers are currently serving or in partnership in almost 150 countries. With an estimated 3 billion people who still do not know God’s love, OM has a particular concern for places with few or no churches. In the UK, OM works alongside local churches, ministering among people groups, both newly arrived and established, that are considered least reached in the UK. These include Arabs, Chinese, Kurds, Syrians, Somalis, Turks and South Asians. You can find out more here.