The Pavement Project is a worldwide venture organised by Lifewords.
Providing help for street children isn’t easy. Many children are traumatised by their life on the street or the experience that put them there in the first place. They are often alienated, have low self esteem, and are wary of accepting help.
This is where Pavement Project comes in, providing a tried and tested way for workers to encourage children to talk about their deep-seated fears and hurts. Through prayer and Bible stories, children can receive healing and affirmation. Workers say that this allows them to understand the child in a much deeper way than before, and to draw alongside them more effectively. Pavement Project demonstrates the power of the Bible’s life words that speak of encounter with Jesus.
Counselling children through Pavement Project aims to raise the self-worth of a child and restore a sense of hope for the future. The Big Green Bag is a key tool used in the process. It was created by child psychologist/trauma specialists, following four years of child-centred research into the needs of street children and the traumas they have experienced.
The Big Green Bag is divided into sections of interactive picture cards, games, and activities – all designed as a process called Picture Me, a carefully planned therapeutic tool to be used with individual children.
Street workers are trained in the Picture Me process before getting access to a Big Green Bag of their own. Once they are trained, workers join a support network of other workers and facilitators who help to make sure that Pavement Project is well used and monitored.
Picture Me is a holistic approach that means children can take God’s Word seriously – seeing his love in action around them, and meeting him through the workers themselves, as well as the stories they tell. Pavement Project is not just talking about the Bible’s life words … it’s living them.
Find out more about this life-changing work in the video below.