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Nelson Trust would like £18,000 to fund creative and practical courses for a year at their STAR Centre (Skills, Training, Arts, Recreation). These courses build people’s self confidence so that they can join in, enjoy the opportunities available here and feel proud of what they have done. Self confidence is a vital ingredient to successful treatment and a life beyond addiction.

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Categories

  • Arts/Culture/Heritage Arts/​Culture/​Heritage
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Beneficiaries

    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Other Other

    Situation

    Nelson Trust provides Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) for people recovering from addiction to help them work out their aptitudes, what they would like to do as a job and what qualifications they need before they can apply. Stroud College runs courses in basic literacy and numeracy, pottery and computer studies at the Trust’s STAR Centre. There are practical courses in Furniture Making, bicycle repair and basic cookery. Everyone goes on outward bound days to develop trust and build self confidence through team work challenges which include caving, rock climbing, canoeing and camping. There are weekly recreation and sports activities. A range of creative courses are available to expand people’s horizons and fill the time when recovering addicts might otherwise revert to ‘using’. The standard of art and photography they produce is extremely high, some clients go on to study these subjects at college. The Stroud College courses are funded by fee income, but the rest are not and we have to fund raise for them. Funding for a very popular Creative Writing course has just run out, we need £3,000 to run this for a year. “These classes allow me to express my anger, hurt and confusion, in my writing, in a positive way and the more I wrote, the less I feel the need to act out and break things, or self harm or hurt other people and our Teacher is good too. We gain confidence in ourselves and learn that our writing is our own and it is never wrong. It would be a shame if we were to not have these sessions because I think there is a lot of talent in all of the clients at Nelson and these sessions give us the chance to show our talents and prove that Addicts are not just a waste of space.” The All Day Art and Crafts course, run once a month, needs £3,000 to continue. The Yoga class costs £2,500 a year to run – we have funding for another 6 weeks – please may we have help to continue it?

    Solution

    100%
    Categories

  • Arts/Culture/Heritage Arts/​Culture/​Heritage
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Beneficiaries

    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Other Other