My volunteering opportunity with the Good Organisation allowed my creativity to come out and prosper.
Back in March 2019, I was invited to become a volunteer walking tour guide when the GO led a project to support people who had experienced homelessness in their lives.
I had spent 14 months in a homeless hostel whilst I dealt with my recovery from my ADDICTION to alcohol.
That chance to research/plan/develop and write my own personal tour of my choice was too good an opportunity to refuse, even though I thought I couldn’t begin to imagine how. Through original support of a mentor, I now still activity run my tour in York and was even interviewed by BBC Look North back then.
Later on that year (2019) I engaged with a project looking at arts and creativity and to be totally honest my level (in my head) was as far as a stick person. Through the brilliant help of Charlotte (our tutor), I learned how to create collages, and this developed into learning continuous line drawing with my non-dominant hand! – even blind drawing, which I loved and enjoyed, and I continue to make time in 2022 to relax my inner head.
We had a great laugh whilst creating some weird images and I’m proud to have had three collage posters displayed publicly in York at a gallery.
The reality of understanding the continuous line drawing led me once spending two hours on the quayside of my beloved TOON happily drawing away and producing three pictures. The idea of me ever even considering that is laughable bearing in mind where I’d been 12 months earlier.
I also used my creativity with my love of music and writing to help create a theatre production for another of my volunteering roles at that time.
These opportunities provided to me by the Good Organisation have massively helped my confidence/self esteem and worth and really helped me to integrate back in and back in and become part of a society I had isolated myself from during my dark moments.
The biggest bonus for me was seeing my two lads laughing at what I had created. PRICELESS.
I continue to and still help the Good Organisation to this day in 2022 encouraging others to take a chance and challenge themselves to find their inner strength and abilities.
I really enjoyed this. It prompted me to go away and learn more about continuous line drawing, which looks really cool. Thanks Miles 🙂 And if I’m ever in York I know where to come for a tour!