Today's session with the youth offenders was just unbelievably good! I don't know where to start; from the beginning having us do the usual walking around the space and building this relationship but greeting each other with different parts of the body to the near end when we had a couple individuals speak their thoughts and feelings and what we could do to get the best out of the project, for them.
We had one person that joined the group late and at the beginning of the lesson I thought to myself 'He might not contribute' but boy was I wrong and once again I've been shown that you should never judge a book by its cover. He came on hardly speaking and I personally couldn't hear his voice and by the end of the lesson he was beaming, having little outbursts of a 'Yeah, I don't mind doing the scene' which I thought was really good because you could see a huge contrast. Another positive I saw throughout the session was with one of the females of the group. Last Friday I had a feeling she wouldn't really enjoy it but today's session with the caterpillar game brought out a huge smile of hers that I've never seen.
To close the session we had a moment to come together and discuss what we wanted for the future. One individual in particular made it really hard for me to cope with his life story. He found the courage and the comfortableness to say what he said in a room full of people he'd only known for a day or two. I was honestly moved and I'm just raring to do something with that story and do what he asked and that's to send a message about gun and knife crime. We share the same ambitions.
Lastly, I love this little message from Maya Angelou. She's an inspiration and someone that does spoken word poetry positively...
Once you find your shoulders dropping
And your speech gets slow and hazyYou better change your way of beingBefore you found your brain got lazyYou can build a better future when you join the winning teamIf you desire a bright tomorrow, you must build a brighter dreamDare to let your dreams reach beyond youKnow that history holds more than it seemsWe are here alive today because our ancestors dared to dreamFrom Africa they lay in the bilge of slave shipsAnd stood half naked on auction blocksFrom eastern-Europe they crowded in vessels overloaded with immigrantsAnd were mis-named on Ellis islandFrom South America and Mexico, from Asia, they laboured in sweat shopsFrom all over the world, they came to AmericaMany shivering in rags, and still they dared to dreamLet us dream for today and for tomorrowLet us dare to dream
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