Pray
The foundation of everything we do should be based in prayer. Coming to God with our dreams and ideas is a great way of starting off any initiative, submitting it to him and spending time thoughtfully processing the response.

Get people on board
After going to God with the idea for a project, it's good to get people on board too. You might want to write a little project proposal outlining what you'd love to see happen and briefly explain how you intend to get there. It will help you clarify what you intend to do and also act as a reference when you're explaining your plans to your church leaders.

Once they agree you may also want to get a small group of people together to pray and support the idea. Then, as a group, you could host a church service and get your congregation inspired by the idea of serving the community. Hopefully a whole church or youth group can feel as though they 'own' the Noise in their town and therefore want to commit and be involved.

Do some research
Whatever you intend to do, it's a good idea to do a bit of research to highlight that there is a need for the suggested project of weekend of events. There's no use organising a litter pick if a park has a very good set of park rangers who keep the place nice an tidy.

If you're thinking of some gardening projects then why not do a leaflet drop encouraging people to get in touch if they need a hand. If you're thinking of something more creative like a football tournament then find out if the kids on a local estate play football, where they play, how many of them there are, at what times they play etc... If there's a need it's often quite obvious to see.

Similalrly if you are thinking of gigs or other types of activities then it's good at this stage to think through costs and other issues like whose going to steward the event, who will act as sound man, what bands will play and will they be available.

All this stuff is a great way of preparing your thoughts and coordinating your efforts to be effective. You don't have to be too official and formal, but if you need to raise money for some of the events or convince people to support the idea then having evidence to suggest your project will meet a genuine need will stand you in good stead. 

Get planning
Once you've got a team together and have defined the need you hope to meet then you can start planning. This might be quite a simple part of the process, especially if your project is fairly small. You'll need to consider exactly what you're going to do, how you're going to get people to the project location, what tools you need, how long it will take and all sorts of other questions too.

If you're coordinating a range of projects over a weekend then you might want to delegate responsibility to team leaders and have a specific format for the whole weekend that links in with church services and prayer meetings. The Local Projects Resource Guide offers much more advice than we can put on this page, but you'll need to consider how the weather, finance and other issues will affect the project. It might be that you need to do some fund raising for the events, or have to hire vans or equipment.

It's important to list and identify all your needs and work out how everything will come together. Writing a document that outlines procedures, expectations of team leaders, job descriptions, contingencies in cases of an emergency and much more besides may seem boring and time consuming, but in the end will defintately help to make the weekend or project go smoothley and effectively.

Health and safety
This is all part of the planning process, but has a significant place that demands it's own little section. You'll have to make sure that all projects are safe and are covered by your churches insuarnce. In most cases this isn't a problem, but it's very good to check that everything you do is covered legally.

If you're involved in a few separate initiatives you may want to run a few risk assessments of the projects to make sure everything is safe. Similarly you'll need to make sure that you have parental consent from all under 18's involved in the project (you can use our forms if you like!). Furthermore, you should always consult the child protection policies of your church to ensure that the events are covered by these policies and regulations.

All this may seem a little intense especially if you are only running a small event. However, it's always good to put these principles into action, making sure that your youth and those who are offering to serve are safe and enjoying themselves!

Advertise
Depending on what you are doing, you'll need to use some method of publicity, both to recruit volunteers and to let the community know what you're doing so they turn up.

Start by placing adverts in the church notices and go from there. You may want to consider a leaflet drop advertising a community party or put posters up in a local parade of shops. If you're running worskshops like djing or dance it might be good to limit places and get kids to sign up at a local community or youth centre.

Whatever you do you it's great to have a presence and create a bit of a buzz about what's going on. Although we want to bless people simply because they are our neighbours, it's also nice for them to know what we're doing in advance and where we come from. Leaflets with the church details on and a contact will all prove to be a massive help... so go for it.

Pray
Praying is a good principle so that's why we've put it in again. As the project draws nearer it's a great idea to have a team dedicated to praying for the events, that people would be touched, changed and moved by servant hearted actions and that God would reveal himself in the process.

Over the weekend you may want to get some of the older people in the church (especially if it's a youth initiative) to commit to praying for the events as they are happening. This team can then be contacted as the day unfolds, praying into specific situations as they emerge. It's a real way to involve everyone in the church and having a time of sharing after the events often results in stories of God acting and inspiring prayers and meeting needs as they come up.

Act Well, the only thing left is to act! It's a great idea to get the teams of young people to wear identity badges displaying the name of the church your a part of (you can also use one of our logo's if you like!) and having emergency contact details on the reverse. Similalrly it's worth spending some time going through the format of the day to outline to the teams exactly what's expected of them and how long it will take.

You could draw up some 'Project Objective' sheets outlining the location of the project, the general objectives, the tools needed, the number of allocated team members, the team leader, time the project is expected to take etc... All this stuff is a great way of ensuring the teams know what they are doing and feel confident that are doing a good job.

If you have a few projects maybe designate a 'Press team' to travel round grab a few photos and stories and use these to report back at the end of the day/weekend all the great stuff that's been achieved.

The most important thing is to have fun!

Follow up Now you've done the weekend or the project you can relax. Well not quite. The Noise isn't supposed to be a one off hit and run event where we suddenly bombard the community and disappear, pleased with our own goodness. The point is that as we serve indiscriminately we get to know individual people.

This won't happen with everyone, but it's always great to follow up relationships and continue to invest in them. If you've cleared someone's garden then after a couple of weeks why not give them a call and ask them how it's going? Similalrly if when hosting a sports competition the kids involved wanted more and more opportunities to play then why not see if you can get a team together to organise a aftershool club?

The options and opportunities from one weekend or day of events can prove to be incredible. Hopefully, as we serve we not only meet real practical needs, but can also develop and sustain relationships with those people in our community that we meet as we serve.
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A classic of Noise events from years gone... classic because it's easy and effective. The basic principle is to get a group togther, walk round an estate or park and simply clean it up. You might want some of those pincer litter picking devices, some gloves, bin liners and maybe some tabbards as you split into teams and pick the street or area free of old crisp wrappers, sweet packets, beer cans and all sorts of other stuff.

Your presence is obvious and is likely to generate stares of confusion from most local residents, but as you go you can explain why you're there and that you smply wanted to bless the local community by getting rid of some of the litter. It's always good to inform a local residents group about what you're doing (so they don't call the police) but otherwise the preparation needed is quite minimal and the effects of your actions are obvious... a cleaner local environment.

Just remember, be careful what you pick up, especially if you stumble across broken glass, used needles etc and maybe have a designated leader to deal with that sort of thing.
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Not the seventies disco nights that go on around the country, but actually a free car wash, where you physically scrub car windows, hub caps, bonnets and the rest (however, there's no harm in playing some Sly and the Family Stone, donning flares and an afro wig and making it a seventies serving fest - the first youth group to take on this theme and send in their photo's will get a special feature page on our site!).

You could do it in your church car park, or get in touch with a local community centre and do it there. Advertise by putting big placards along the road on the approach to the car park and maybe do a leaflet drop... Alternatively you could pick a particular street and work your way down the road asking people if they'd like their car washed for free. Some might say no, but other's will be well happy to take up the offer. This is a great way of putting on this type of project if you've not got a big church car park.

Anyway, it's fairly easy to organise, you just need some water, buckets, soap, elbow grease and a few cloths... remember wear gloves if you don't want to get wrinkly skin.
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A bit of a different take on the Noise project which might need a bit more planning and preparation. Whether it's a afterschool football club, a weekend of competition's culminating in a bank holiday monday afternoon final or a one off skills lesson with a local professional, it's a great way of attracting kids and putting on an event they can get involved in.

You'll need to advertise a bit before and if you have limited spaces encourage kids to sign up somehow.

If you're up for doing this sort of thing then you'll need to consider health and safety, and child protection issues. You may already have this policy based stuff available in the regulations of your church, but it's best to get your youth leader or leadership team in on the planning so they can advise the most appropriate and safest plan of action. However, don't let these things stop you from getting out there and doing it!
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Girls love that cheesey american TV show where they practically knock down a house and rebuild it entirely from scratch. Most churches won't have the resources to do that sort of thing, but if you know someone locally whose moving house, or looking to redocorate, but simply doesn't have the money to get round to it then why not get a team from the church together and get them to help out.

Everything from repainting an old room, to helping clear out a load of mess, or even a larger house change project would be a great way to really serve a particular person. You could make it an ongoing project or something over an entire weekend... it's up to you and the needs of those peopke you know in your community.

If you choose to do this sort of project you could make a video, have a presenter and document the changes that take place to the house over the period of the project. You could even finish with a little unveiling party where you show the homeowners round the house, room or garden for the first time since it received the 'extreme makeover' challenge.

Let us know how it goes, and definately send us the video, we'd love to see it!
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Some gardens can get pretty messy, some just need a bit of a tidy...

You don't have to be amazingly green fingered for this type of project, especially if the garden or area in question needs a load of rubbish shifted. Similalrly older people who love their gardens but just can't get out to weed or mow the lawns any more would love the help and really appreciate what seems even the most basic of efforts.

For this project you'll have to do a bit of research, finding out where the need is and what sort of stuff is to be done. You'll probably need gardeining tools and maybe even a van or trailer to get rid of cuttings, weeds and rubbish. This kind of project is a bit dependent on the weather so it's always good to have a backup too.

If a garden is in a right state you could even do something like the extreme makeover above and totally re design a particular garden. This would be a great weekend project and could end with a small BBQ or party in the newly created garden.
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These events have become really popular over the past few years, acting as a great way for local churches to serve and bring together local people.

Often these events happen on the Bank Holiday Monday of the Noise weekend, offering free BBQ's, music, face painting, bouncy castle's and all sorts of other imaginative stuff that brings the church and the community together.

Not only can they be a great laugh, but also a way of connecting a community together. Any communal event that takes a 'no strings attached' approach will get people chatting, help develop relationships and make people excited or proud to live where they do.

These events need quite a bt of planning and advertising, plus there's a bit of a cost in getting food, BBQ equipment and other entertainment together. If you want to do this sort of thing you may want to do some fundraising and get your whole church on board with the project.
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If you can't think of anything you'd like to do as a Noise project then why not think about the kind of things you love doing and are good at and do that. Everything from dj worskshops, makeovers, dance classes, temproary nail and beauty bars to gigs and cafes have been organisied and run over a Noise weekend in the past. The important thing is to have fun and offer a interesting service to those around you. As people begin to see the church serving practical needs and also inspiring creativity by investing in people, we will see our churches come to life playing an active role in the towns and communities they are a part of. Have a look at the list, be inspired and drop us a mail to let us know what you are doing however 'different' it is...

Why not try:
Run a temporary nail bar
Organise some dance classes
Create and host a temporary skate park
Organise a under 18's nightclub/party
Put on a gig
Run a few dj workshops

... the list goes on... why not add to it?
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