Before joining Resilience Learning Partnership I found myself with no outlook on life and at least 4 criminal charges against me. 

I met Shumela 2 years ago and started working with her on the hard edges project at RLP. 

Due to COVID we couldn’t keep the hard edges project going, I thought I was going to lose any purpose or routine I had managed to find with Shumela’s support. 

Luckily the idea for Crafty Kids came up and I was very keen to be a part of this from the very start. 

I started by making up sets of crayons and pencils at home, we then moved into an office where I started to volunteer more and take on more jobs, within a month or two I was getting paid for 2 days work and volunteering for 1 day. 

6 months later and I am still employed at RLP Crafty Kids and looking forward to starting the TIER programme with resilience learning partnership in the new year. 

I have got a weekly routine and purpose now, this has also helped my mental health and it’s all thanks to RLP.