Stories of Hope and Home

And so,this February half-term, a dream became a reality when nineteen of us headed to South Wales for three nights away together. With red weather warnings in place stretching across most of south Wales, it was hardly an auspicious start to our time away. But everyone arrived on time (no mean feat in itself), and despite cancelled trains and warnings that the place we were due to be staying might have been evacuated, we made it! And it was truly beautiful. We fitted in plenty of activity: shared meals, walks in the countryside, music, drama and art, a museum and a parliament building, a whole lot of new English vocabulary. But really, this was not about what we did: it was about who we were: as individuals and together. It was about a group of people bringing themselves: their joys and their struggles, their lives and their vulnerabilities, and offering them to each other to build a community. It was about wrestling with our differences and discovering our similarities. It was

This feels like a long overdue update on a website that has been sadly neglected! The lack of news is certainly not because nothing has been happening: quite the contrary, we have been excited by how quickly this fledgling project seems to be taking flight. Now, at the midpoint of the academic year, it feels like a good point to reflect on where things are at so far. Since we began meeting regularly as a group at the beginning of October, 30 different participants have engaged with the project. Some have come and gone, but many, even most, have become part of building a truly beautiful, supportive community which cradles both laughter and tears. Amongst those thirty we have welcomed people from eighteen different nationalities, women and men of different ages, cultures, religions, languages ... We have also begun the other part of our project: creating opportunities for the project participants to share their stories with children and young people in schools, and here too it al