The Unity in the Community Youth group were honored to be invited to facilitate a creative writing workshop in the Ballymun Youth Reach project. The facilitation of the workshop was led by the spoken work maestro John Cummins. John had the group of 12 young people between the ages of 16-18 rappin, rhyming and having a laugh. The group discussed community and dreams and what that means to them. We are very excited to read the creative writing submissions from this vibrant, engaging and lively group.
Gavin Uzell from the UC youth group leadership team spoke to the group as part of the workshop and he had this to say about the experience;
We were invited to Ballymun to do a workshop with our team to do a project of creative writing in the youth reach education facility. In my opinion it went very well the full class took part and we really enjoyed our time there.
The experience reminded me a lot of myself. It reminded me of what I was like at that age. I found education very hard as a kid. I struggled a lot because of ADHD I could never focus and found it hard to sit still, for long periods of time.
Sharing my story with the young people is very important to me. To tell them the importance of education and self-education and to explain the mistakes I have made in hope of influencing them to stay on the right path and to go back to their communities to play a part in making positive change.
Creative writing and taking part in projects like this can be so important for young people. It’s good for opening their minds. It’s a great way for a person to formally express themselves. Some people have a difficulty with openly verbally expressing themselves so writing is another way of doing that and also improve reading and writing skills which are important in everyday life.
We would like to thank John Coughlan and all the team at BYR for having us!