The Church Together in Camborne unites in many ways to serve the local community.  Whether it’s working with the elderly, young families, children and young people, the homeless; either in our buildings or more recently with the establishing of the Street Pastor Project, out on the streets, we work together to demonstrate in practical ways God’s interest in and love for all.

Many directly involved in this community work have come to see that having time to listen to others is increasingly important but not always easy to achieve in the context of the group and activities for which they are responsible.  Therefore, in the autumn of 2008 the possibility of providing a specific ‘listening ear’ service began to be explored.

A steering group drawn from across the churches and also including local health and social work professionals started to look at the practicalities and skills needed to offer a high quality pastoral listening service that would compliment our existing church pastoral networks and serve the wider community. 

At the beginning of 2009  we advertised in our churches for volunteers who were willing to offer their time to the service, undergo an interview process and engage in the necessary training in listening skills.  We received a good response and between May and July 09 our present team

of listeners each undertook 40 hours of Pastoral Care Training with a specific emphasis on ‘active listening skills’.  The accredited Pastoral Skills Course is designed specifically to prepare Pastoral Carers to provide open, sensitive, non-judgemental, non-directive and respectful support for others at their point of need and to give them a safe and boundaried time and space in which to talk about their experience, problems and concerns. At all times the focus of such conversations will be directed by the service user and is not intended to be an opportunity for Wavelength staff to ‘preach’ or impose our Christian beliefs and values on others. Our sole aim is to seek to support those in our churches and community who feel they would benefit from a ‘listening ear’.

During this period the steering group worked to set up the administrative base that underpins the service, sought funding support and put together publicity information in the form of posters, leaflets and website in order to inform the community about the listening service.

During this time we also settled on the name ‘ Wavelength’, which we hope accurately describes our desire to meet others exactly where they are at this point in their life journey and to help them feel heard and understood.

Throughout this process we have been well supported by our local churches who have provided some initial funding, a venue for our training and suitable rooms in which we can meet with those who use the service.  To date we have been able to offer listening support which has been well received by many from our local community and it is our hope that we shall be able to continue to meet this need and develop our service over the coming years.