It has been an amazing year for the Flourish Project. We have had the privilege to work alongside 322 young people; this figure has doubled from last year. Our hope is that we will continue to impact child after child after child. Our vision is to see 100,000 lives changed over the next 10 years. We want to plant seeds in children and young people that will stay with them into their adulthood, where they will be able to pinpoint that moment when they believed in who they have been created to be.
“Over this year there have been many highlights, however, this is one of the highlights that has stayed with me. I was working with a group of 15-year-old boys who had been expelled from a number of different schools. There was one boy whose family situation was not good. He struggled with sensory overload and would often shout out offensive words in the middle of a session. He never gave me eye contact and would constantly put his head on the table with his hood up to disengage from the activities. However, it came to the last session where we get to give out certificates and just for a couple of minutes I got to speak directly into his eyes (which was a big deal), he actually stayed focused for that moment and absorbed the life-giving words, that I was speaking over him.
This small exchange of a spoken word was not just about the words being spoken, but it was about the moment of human connectedness. At that moment there was a movement an exchange that took place and that was huge.” ~ Hannah Williams
We are looking forward to what 2020 will bring as we partner with more schools and see more transformation in the lives of young people.
Check out one of our videos from our mentors summing up his highlights for this year: