COACH Report
In February this year RBC began a wonderful new ministry to support and assist families
in the local community who are struggling in some way.
COACH stands for Creating Opportunities and Casting Hope.
It is designed to mobilize and train people within the church as Mentors to reach out
and support at risk, isolated and disadvantaged families with the aim of arresting a
deterioration of these families’ life circumstances. The program has an early intervention
focus, and is targeted toward families who have a child or children under 12 years in
their care.
In April this year, Mark Matthews, national director of the COACH program joined us for
four days as we met with leaders from various community organisations to provide
detailed information about COACH. These individuals were given guidelines about how
to refer families in need to our program.
After much prayer and seeking, 14 people from RBC completed the 14 hour training
program to work with vulnerable families. The training was an intensive, but engaging
and equipping time where we were able to focus on a number of topics pertinent to the
COACH role.
The next weeks were spent interviewing our potential mentors, and ensuring police
checks and mandated notification training were completed.
In June our first family joined the program and a new mentor/family relationship began.
It has been such a blessing to see this relationship blossom and grow, and to know that
someone who was, and still is experiencing some difficult times now has a person in
their lives they know is supporting them, creating hope for the future. In August another
family/mentor relationship began and is off to a positive start.
We are continuing to pray that God will bring in just the right families, at just the right
time for the mentors He has equipped.