The Joy Foundation was formed as a charity in 2009. This was the result of churches coming together and recognising that the work that Andy Housam had been spearheading in local schools for the last ten years on behalf of Lincoln Christian Fellowship now needed to be taken on by a wider organisation. Andy had built up this work from scratch so that there were 6 local schools in which he developed a key Christian presence and influence. Children were experiencing something of the Christian message that maybe otherwise they would not have received, so the churches knew that this not only needed to continue but also grow so that more children in and around Lincoln could hear this vital life changing message.

 

Andy began to approach more schools about whether they would like to also receive such input and the overwhelming response was so positive that the number of schools quickly grew. Andy began to offer regular Collective Worship in all of these schools, clubs in some of them and curriculum support in some. Volunteers from local churches also then came forward to be part of the support that The Joy Foundation offered to schools. These local churches also started financially supporting The Joy Foundation and along with successful grant applications, The Joy Foundation began to employ Andy in its own right. Schools then also started approaching Andy to see if he would supplement his involvement in their schools by the provision of regular lessons. These have been in RE, Values, Life Skills, PSHE, Philosophy and PE.

 

In 2015 The Joy Foundation employed a second employee to be a Schoolsworker - Helen Pennington. Since then Helen has been able to help develop the work by providing further Collective Worship, curriculum input and has started a new stream of mentoring support. Andy and Helen have since worked together to provide online Collective Worship and extend the work so that over 30 local schools have benefited from the help of The Joy Foundation.

 

We believe that God has been right at the heart of all of these developments and continues to lead us on into new areas. Our desire remains to serve local children and to lay a foundation of the joy of Jesus in young children’s lives.