Kairos Arts
Hope, dignity and self-worth through creative arts to women and children
29 July 2025
What do lumps of unformed white clay and plasticine have in common? In the hands of Kairos Arts, a Methodist-backed charity in Jersey, they are life changing for hundreds of people.
Cathy Sara is the founder and CEO of the charity whose main aim is to restore hope, dignity and self-worth through creative arts to women and children affected by abuse, sexual violence and trafficking. Rooted in and compelled by Christian principles, therefore passionate that its reach is diverse and inclusive, Cathy describes how it was the Methodist Church that first stepped in - and continues to do so - to provide a safe space for the charity’s work, when interest was high, but resources were low.
The inspiration for Kairos Arts started in India, a country Cathy had visited a number of times in a former role with a global human rights organisation, developing a therapeutic arts approach, exploring how this might help with part of the rehabilitation of broken, traumatised lives.
Her work with this charity included looking at how the approach through therapeutic arts might support women in refuges in London. Moving to Jersey in 2013 with her husband, a Methodist minister, it was a natural step for Cathy to think what would this work look like on the island? She spoke at a public event, and was overwhelmed by the amount of interest.
“There was nothing. We are still the sole provider of therapeutic arts provision in Jersey, and there was a lot of understanding that the arts could make a difference, but nobody was working at a particularly intentional level or a high level of using therapeutic arts. So the flood gates opened.”
As the work took off, still part of the international charity, Cathy realised she needed to take a step of faith and set up a new charity on the island; in 2019 Kairos Arts was born. The Methodist Church stepped in, with one of its centres St Helier Methodist centre offering office and a workshop space, as another charity had just moved out.
“I was so grateful for the faith and the trust that they put in us to hold such a sensitive piece of work in their building.
“At the beginning of 2020, we were laying the carpets, then COVID hit. But because the church had gifted us that space, we could close the doors without being crippled by it. We weren't worrying about those running costs. So actually, it was liberating.”
COVID gave Cathy time to build a team, look at the charity’s mission and vision and ask the simple question, what is God calling us to do? That season helped Kairos Arts develop into the charity it is today with 20 staff, group programmes including drop-ins throughout the year, facilitating art installations with survivors of domestic abuse and reaching 30 children and young people with one to one therapeutic art interventions every week across 9 schools and the Jersey hospice.
The charity has many partners on the island supporting their service users, while maintaining a particular passion for the root of its work, around abuse and sexual violence.
The name remains important, Cathy says Kairos - the Greek word, used by Jesus, when he said “My time has come,” to explain a moment in time, rather than measurable time - reminds the charity of the importance of their work providing a kairos moment for its users. “A moment of opportunity, a moment of self discovery, a moment when life is never the same again.”
Cathy says the Methodist Church has enabled many hundreds of kairos moments because of its generosity both financially and in prayer and has been key in its development and flourishing.
Kairos Arts in action
‘Jane’ was a very angry woman, deeply affected by many childhood traumas and had joined a Kairos Arts group programme. During a session which involved manipulating white clay to help process emotions she shot her hand up in the air, and said; ‘I am having a kairos moment. I know exactly what I need to make.I need to make a beautiful water lily, because out of the sludge and the mud and the grime, something beautiful can be made.’ By the end of the six week programme, Cathy says she couldn't have been more transformed.
An 11 year old school boy was referred to the charity, having stopped communicating through COVID, he couldn't process emotions, couldn't talk, and so using the arts was a really powerful way of him trying to process. Each week he would simply stab the plasticine. He would rip it. He would throw it. It was violent. But by the end of the 16 week intervention, he was creating characters and putting them into containers lining them with feathers. In his own words he described them as beautiful.