Content warning: This post includes themes of drug use, violence and suicide ideation.
In this week’s team briefing, we spoke about the importance of hope when all there seems to be is despair. We try to get the balance right between voicing our concerns about events and policies which may disproportionately affect our clients, and showing the adversity that people can overcome - against all the odds.
Hope can mean different things to different people. For Thom, it was about keeping optimistic about work opportunities after many months of frustration.
Thanks to Thom’s resilience and the work of our team, Thom has now been accepted on the Mears Careers programme as a Business Support Apprentice.
Liliane found hope from a newly uncovered ability, after undertaking a work placement at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
After spending time learning how to be an audience transcriber, Liliane ‘surprised herself’ as to how far her English-speaking ability had come, and how she could use the software needed to transcribe audience feedback.
“There is a way out. There is hope.”
For Haydn, he wanted to send a message to others that he found a way out:
Amidst struggles with dyslexia and societal prejudice, Haydn’s journey unfolds from the urgency of teenage parenthood to the depths of street homelessness. A gift of a guitar becomes a beacon of hope, igniting a remarkable path fuelled by love and the transformative power of music.
- Heard Storytelling
Mutual trust between Haydn and Mustard Tree led to opportunity and a chance to help others. When a job at the charity came up, he said that his ‘life turned around big time’.
Haydn has been a Mustard Tree staff member for a number of years, working as a Driver Mentor for Freedom Project trainees looking for a career in warehouse and logistics environments.
Haydn’s story - part of Heard Storytelling’s Random Objects of Kindness exhibition, is available to listen to at the top of the page.
In other news…
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"Why would these people take a chance on me?"