Over six years with Crisis in Croydon I grew from Progression Coach to Outreach Arts Lead, delivering workshops in mixed media, photography, sound, film and crafts across youth hostels, community centres, refugee centres and schools. In 2019 I curated a large-scale permanent exhibition of service members' artwork, bringing together a street festival and several galleries with no hierarchy - work that helped the public see people often pushed to the edges as valued.
Much of our outreach worked with refugee women and children at the Croydon refugee centre, offering a space to meet, learn English and join art, sewing and Zumba. The scale of the crisis was hard, and it left me even more determined to fight for equal rights for everyone.
My first role in the field was as an employment and resettlement worker at Thames Reach, where I ran art classes, a newsgroup and an eight-week employment skills course, and represented equality and diversity. It was my way into a ten-year career supporting hundreds of lives through homeless organisations.
