What a week.

Weather has been poor.

My mood has been low.

Then suddenly today I was invited to a local university to discuss my experience of being a recent personal litigant to university graduates at the law clinic.

After not wanting to get out of bed today as I was feeling so low, I pushed myself and overcame my nerves.

I was out of my comfort zone.

When the speaking event was finished I arrived completely by accident at another event and it was truly inspirational.

I’m so pleased I pushed myself out of my comfort zone today and had these two amazing opportunities to speak about my real lived experiences.

Looking at the brighter side if everything even when it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Hopes are up, trying to retrain for a better tomorrow.

I’ve loved doing all the creative workshops with this group. It’s such a supportive group and has made me smile each time I do a workshop with these lovely bunch of people.

Had a busy start to the week and joined Jean's creative journalism session just in time. I was so exhausted that I actually sat and listened to what others participants were talking about. This felt like a huge weigh had been lifted off my shoulders, to know I'm apart of an amazing project where there are people who may be facing the same worries or anxieties as myself. Sometimes they are very small but to listen and talk to others in a room seems to be a positive way to end the day.

Thank you to all

I've started running community meals at our local community hub. The hub started in Jan 2023 as a response to the cost of living crisis, and currently hosts a food surplus project, the community meal, a school uniform bank, a baby bank as well as a community radio station, a space to hire for community groups on a pay as you feel basis and a community kitchen.

The meals are fantastic, made largely with food surplus and provide a focus each week for people that are lonely.

What is the role of education in child development?

What effect does classroom education have on the lived realities of young people?

Feeling hopeful today. I’m getting to speak to policy makers in (NI) and share my real lived experiences of Universal credit and poverty to advocate for change. I also will discuss the fact there should be no foodbanks in this day and age and how demeaning it is that not enough people can survive without the help of foodbanks.

I am sat at my computer writing a piece for an upcoming anti-poverty strategy event. I will be speaking alongside a well respected professor and the project lead, and I feel absolutely over the moon to be considered knowledgeable and relevant enough to be one of those three presenting at such a high level event.

I am also helping to write an anti-poverty manifesto for ours and two other borough's VCFSE anti poverty coalitions. Both organisations and strategies are expected to run for five years and have been allocated funding for the first two. I never thought that what I did as a career in the past would be transferrable and had felt that my relevance was nil since becoming a lone parent living in poverty due to no fault of my own.

Because of the experiences my son and I have had, and because of the project participation with Covid Realities and Changing Realities, I feel very confident that I speak for many and am able to articulate an excellent representation of what it is to live in poverty.

What we can do to facilitate change is where the work I am part of is leading and to be involved in that work and respected for my thoughts and input is so very uplifting. In no small part I thank the Changing Realities team and exposure to media and speaking out via the projects for these opportunities. But mostly, I can see now that I always had the ability to be more than I believed, I had just allowed it to be overshadowed by things and individuals beyond my control.

I have struggled with feeling worthy for most of my life and even at times I end up wondering why my question of the week responses and diary entries are never included on the news drops, worried that I have somehow upset someone or signed up wrongly, these are things which worry me and hold me back. Clearly the worries are related to negative experiences in my past and a feeling of very low self worth, and I battle them daily so that I can be part of the change I want to see for my own family and for the millions of others who are in a sometimes desolate position.

I am our local Parent Carer Forum's anti poverty rep now, and, will be working with multiple organisations in the coming months to form a solid and continuing network of support and empowerment which includes lived experience, in fact often this is at the heart of the work carried out, and that, I think, is amazing.

Ever grateful for the opportunity to rise and to show my son that just because things are tough does not mean that we have to hide ourselves and be browbeaten into thinking we are less important than others. We are not, especially I believe my son has the ability to change things so that future generations learn that challenging what is patently wrong in society does not mean the end of things for themselves, it is only a beginning.

People who are willing to speak out will always attract negative attention, will always be the focus of the meanness and envy of some, and that is OK. It should never, ever mean that you make yourself smaller or worry as I do that it is us who are in the wrong.

A new year, a time of hope. I’m feeling determined to be better, provide more, embrace opportunities. My children deserve the best me.

It's a new year, heart is racing again, holidays are over and kids get back to school after tomorrow. Tried to shop for kids school supplies can't believe how high things are. Even from Primark. Nothing is cheap anymore. In fact it is very expensive.

It's the end of the year I am so grateful for life - thank you everyone.

It is amazing how with probably even more limited resources, Changing Realities have been able to deliver support to all participants and multiple of timely updates.

You really get to feel ‘part’ of something real and game changing.

We are more than just families spread across the country, we are actually a community of people, coming together for the better good of the community! Kudos to the CR staff team