Words To Live By 2019 was a project funded by The National Lottery. The project supported a group of individuals suffering with long term mental health issues. Through a series of writing workshops these individuals explored their emotions, experiences and emotional responses in a new and different way as a form of therapy on their journey to better health. The workshops encouraged participants to develop both their spoken and written word. As part of the project, separate sessions were run at Headway (the acquired brain injury day centre) and the participants of these sessions created a whole section of the finished book. One participant (Nigel) came to read his work at the launch event. The final work was published as a book that is available throughout Worcestershire and was celebrated with a launch event in Summer 2019 in Paradiddles Café Worcester.
Since the book came out the majority of the group continue to write, several of the participants still attend local poetry nights to share their work and have had their work published in other anthologies since the project. Jess is working on her first collection of poetry and Nicola was shortlisted for Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2020.
A full report on this project and its benefits is available on request.
The Word Association 