2009: He has helped homeless people in the most deprived parts of London and set up a church which has attracted hundreds of young people, and now Tim Sweeting is turning his hand to helping vulnerable youngsters in Norfolk.

Norwich Evening News reporter Sam Emanuel talked to the new Chief Executive of YMCA Norfolk about homelessness, hoarding and hallucinations.

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Tim Sweeting was studying history at the University of East Anglia when he discovered Christianity - something that was to change the rest of his life.

 

After finding God, he went from a carefree student who planned to work in a bank to someone determined to help young people who had not been given the opportunities in life that other people take for granted.

 

After going on a "journey of faith", Mr Sweeting, who was born in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, in 1976, began a voluntary role looking after a house of six 16 and 17-year-olds with drug or mental health issues, and after "an interesting and eventful year", he forged his future career in the YMCA.

 

He was employed as a support worker at a 150-bedroom direct access hostel in Walthamstow, which he found "hugely rewarding", and after helping youngsters there, he moved to Ealing with his wife Anna, 30, to set up ChristChurch, a Newfrontiers church which is run in the Piccadilly Theatre on Sundays and now attracts up to 600 young people.

 

He moved back to Norwich a month ago to take up his new position as the Chief Executive of YMCA Norfolk from John Drake, who had worked in the role for 30 years.

 

He said: "I joined the YMCA as a support worker to support young people in pretty extreme circumstances. We deal with people that have been through things that would make you wince - things that we would never want our children to have to experience, including prostitution.

 

The 32-year-old, who enjoys playing a variety of sports including football and has a two-year-old daughter called Sophia, plans to focus on making sure the accommodation offered is of the highest quality and increase the quantity to meet the increasing demand they are experiencing because of the recession.

 

"We need somewhere else for people to move on to, like rented accommodation, so they can become more independent," he said. "We cook for them here and they have to share bathrooms and so on. But the problem is that there are more young people than there are places."

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Article extracts courtesy of EveningNews24