First Story Summer Residential 2024

Charity Partners News | 30 May 2024

Half term is nearly over and the summer holidays beckon. We are looking forward to the First Story Summer Residential which teamArchie will be funding for the fifth year.

16 young people have now been selected from hundreds taking part in First Story programmes in their schools across the country. They will come together in rural Yorkshire in July to work on their creative writing, inspired by a small team of professional writers and each other.  For many it is the first time they have been away from home and the experience of learning to share their writing (and the downtime spent together) with likeminded individuals is transformational.

Many of you will have met Malu and Arya who read their own poems so inspiringly at the Christmas concert. Claire met them at the Summer Residential in 2023. You can read about the experiences of other young people on the First Story website:

https://firststory.org.uk/lives-changed/

Their stories all speak of a sense of freedom and positive and non-judgemental criticism. Safaa attended the Summer Residential in 2022 and remains determined to build a career as a writer. She sums it up – “I most enjoyed the free space and time we had to write. At the Residential, you get the sense of the nature all around you and you have peace of mind. It’s like a free liberal space, you’re not constricted.”

Not all the young people will go on to have careers in literature. Daniella, who also attended the 2022 Summer Residential, is interested in a career in banking or finance. She knows though that the confidence and perspective developed during the programme will have a fundamental influence on her life chances. “I’ve learnt to always make connections, wherever you go, to be open minded and creative, not to limit yourself to what you’re used to or what others want … I can do more than I think” but she says “I know no matter where I go, poetry will follow beside.” She is now a First Story ambassador and is already inspiring others by organising creative writing activities in her school and through her own stories of reading for the Queen at First Story’s 15th birthday celebrations.

This is part of the poem she read for the Queen at Clarence House:

Coming from a place like me
Expressive I stay – words and thoughts face imprisonment – they’re criminals
That’s why I never thought I’d do poetry
There was no other way to stop the words becoming fugitives
On the run
On the loose
Facing thrill
Now they finally stand still

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Christmas Concert 2024

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New table tennis project with Greenhouse Sports

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