Building Resilience; Creating Hope
When we share our creative skills and ideas we are presenting others with a gift. Not only of our time, talents and imagination but also we are hoping that we will empower individuals to see the world the way that we do, full of creative wonder. We are investing in our community.
I was both humbled and delighted that one of the women, who had regularly been coming to the Bee Creative Monday night sessions that ran before the pandemic, told me that she become involved with leading creative wellbeing sessions. When I set up Bee Creative as a platform to promote craft activities as a form of self care, I was keen to share the empowering feeling of being able to create something.
It could be my teaching background, but I have always led the creative workshops with the intention of teaching skills and promoting the enjoyment of the process of learning something new as much as appreciating the end product itself. It was a formula applied to each new project and it worked. Sadly the onset of the pandemic halted us in our tracks and we haven’t met for a while, so it is especially encouraging to know that the Bee Creative legacy has given confidence to attendees to start up their own groups.
Helen contacted me originally for some of my hand drawn step-by-step origami instructions, which I made to support beginners in origami. The instructions were one of a small collection that I created specifically for the group, were tested by them and refined from their feedback. It was gratifying to hear that Helen had found them so useful she wanted to share them with others, and had the confidence to do so.
Hope Nottingham is a Christian charity that works with local churches and community groups and is passionate about serving their community through the work they do. Their services include the foodbank, counselling and befriending and they are always looking for volunteers to support with these. Helen is based at Hope House in Beeston and talked to me about the two of the strands of support that the centre is offering to provide opportunities for local people to meet. They actively support community building initiatives such as Places of Welcome and Renew Wellbeing café spaces.
Coming out of the pandemic wellbeing sessions were high on the agenda so it was a matter of getting things started really. They had initiated some mindful colouring and there was talk of a ‘knit and natter’ group but it had not yet come to fruition, so Helen got the balls of wool rolling! She has nurtured this group, that meets once a week, initially getting them involved in the Knit for Peace project. The attraction was that knitting the squares required to make blankets of dressing gowns for ‘people in need’ would be simple enough for novice knitters and fit well with Hope’s ethos of helping individuals out of crisis. Helen tells me ‘it was a good focus, and it felt meaningful,’ as a result it was successful in engaging people.
In addition to the knitting group, which welcomes other crafters too, Helen tells me about the more established Friendship Club. Originally set up by Hope as a way of addressing isolation and loneliness in the community, the existing model which generally involved getting in guest speakers was not really encouraging participants to engage in free conversation. Helen has led initiatives in the past but said she felt more inspired and skilled to do so because of time spent as part of the Bee Creative Community. She tells me, she understood the community building strategies which were needed to support individuals, rather than just providing activities as a time filling exercise.
Helen talks about making changes to the format of the meetings so that people are encouraged to meet and greet, promoting relaxed conversations at the start of each sessions. The introduction of more craft activities will also encourage interaction, she feels. With this is mind Helen has made changes to the format of the meetings by introducing craft activities. From September there will be extra sessions planned, a drinks table will be provided for people to gather around. She is also initiating optional crafts to keep people engaged with each other and in a mindful activity.
Helen’s first session was folding origami hearts which went down well as you can see from the pics. The most common meaning for the heart symbol is love, which again fits in with the humanist values of Hope Nottingham. We use the symbol to replace the word ‘love’ in many cultures and of course Valentine’s Day is one of the most common times of the year where the heart symbol is used to represent our actual hearts. It’s a symbol of our uniqueness and unity.
‘Hope is the healer of the mind,’ is a quote that resonates with Helen. It stems from a time when she had been incredibly low and the depression was lifting. She had crashed to depths she hadn’t imagined she could, and had lost all hope. She talks of “being so numb that you don’t actually realise how bad you are” and how despite having everything she needed materially, there was a “huge void in her life.” Coming to the Bee Creative sessions has obviously made a positive impact on Helen, so much so she is now in a position to pass her ‘hope’ on to others.
We admire your resilience Helen, and are grateful to you for sharing your story of hope.
Bees & love
Debra
