Here at Worthing Salvation Army, we have been reaching out to identify and meet the spiritual and practical needs of the people in our area for almost 140 years. The recent pandemic has forced us to curtail our full range of services, but it has also opened up more opportunities to work with and for our community. We are so looking forward to resuming our full programme soon.

Pre Covid Our Community Café offered a relaxing and friendly environment for all ages and is the hub of our centre. We hope to get this running again soon.

Child Contact Centre

The supported Child Contact Centre at the Salvation Army Worthing aims to provide a facility for children to spend time with parents when there have been family breakdowns.. It is a friendly, neutral and child centred environment that provides toys and games that reflect the diverse needs of children of all ages. Accredited by the National Association of Child Contact Centres, our centre's main focus is the safety and protection of the children.

Meet New People

One of our main aims is to target Social Isolation in Worthing and we offer multiple groups and services to tackle this issue. These include Knit and Natter , Cameo club ( over sixties )  and a Toddler Group, which are all great ways to meet new people.

Welcome Friends

Our visiting Befriending scheme, Welcome Friends, supports those who are experiencing social isolation, especially those who live alone. During lockdown and throughout the pandemic, the need for our service increased vastly. Our visiting befrienders kept in touch with doorstep visits; dropping off shopping; sending letters, cards and emails and making regular phone calls. We are now starting to resume our regular home visits.

Care and Share

As part of our Befriending scheme, Care and Share is a mutual support group for those who have a caring role, for family members of friends. We meet monthly for discussions over coffee; activities, quizzes and outings. Care and Share is set up to provide a strong support network for our members.

Homelessness Initiative

For several years we were able to provide support for the homeless and the following are just two examples:

- providing overnight accommodation every Friday between January and March. This was in partnership with six other local churches.

- providing a lunchtime meal with a drink, at no cost, in our community café. This was a year round service.

Covid restrictions meant we had to suspend these services, but during this period we have been able to

- be part of a team delivering a much needed meal to those accommodated in a local hotel and

- opening our doors last winter on a Saturday afternoon as a drop in service for the street homeless to meet some of their essential needs..

Other forms of supports will either be re-established or introduced  once we are able.  However the services we offer are often only possible with support from within the local community ,by way of donations( including clothing and bedding in addition to finance ) for which we and those we support are grateful.

With our aim to impact more lives, there are always opportunities for people to help. We offer a variety of volunteering prospects and would love you to work with us to support our mission. If you would like to find out more about our volunteering openings, please contact Reception on 01903 234497.