A few things to look forward to in 2025
What have we got to be so happy about, eh?
Is it the fact that everything’s closing and/or slowing down for a few weeks?
The prospect of time with loved ones, endless food and drink, parties punctuating days of peace and quiet - and maybe, if it’s our thing, a little spiritual reflection?
Some of us, yes. But we know how hard this time of year can be for some people - or how hard it becomes if you normally love it and things aren’t going great for you right now. For that reason, Nell isn’t switching off her phone or e-mails over the break: if you need someone to see you wherever you are, please don’t suffer in silence.
No, what we’re really happy about is what we have to look forward to in the new year, when the feasting is over and we get back to the task of finding ways to bring equitable joy, visibility and opportunity to survivor communities all year round!
It’s been quite a mountain to climb this year, building up a small charity from scratch at a time when so many are collapsing. We’ve had to go over and above to prove ourselves and keep hopeful - and can’t state strongly enough just how much we have to thank the many survivors who have engaged with us and told us how much we mean to them this year. The feeling is totally mutual, guys: we couldn’t have kept going without you.
And it’s paying off. After months of struggling to convince anyone at all, we are now over the moon to have received three grants in quick succession from National Lottery Awards For All, Camden Giving, and CLICK Arts Foundation, as well as a number of commissions, that are going to keep us busy over the next few months.
In particular, we want to point to our utter delight at hearing from one of these funders that they were particularly drawn to our work for its intersectional nature. After sticking to our values for so long through so many rejections determining that our work was too complex, too risky, not streamlined enough, we punched the air at this acknowledgment for the need to see people and themes from multiple angles at once, and engage audiences creatively in the multi-faceted nature of existing in our world - whether as a survivor or not. Keep doing what you believe in, folks, it pays off in the end!
There are a bunch of things up our sleeves we can tell you about in not too long, but for now, here are some highlights that might interest you.
Core Group Continues - with a tail-off project on the way…
We are now delighted to be able to confirm that we have enough funding to keep the core group going every month of 2025. We’ll be kicking off the year on Sunday 12th January, and the other dates are available on our website.
Those who have been attending so far have started building towards something that we think has the potential to be very special - but not knowing quite what it will look like yet, we don’t want to say too much just now…
That said, the space will remain open to anyone who identifies as a survivor for the foreseeable, so if you haven’t come yet and want to come see what all the fuss is about sometime, please do get in touch! And check out our recent interview with Camden Magazine for a little more background.
One Roof Festival of Homeless Arts
Starting the very day after our next core group session, we are delighted to be co-producing and facilitating at Old Diorama Arts Centre’s One Roof Festival of Homeless Arts from 13th-24th January. After meeting with the other facilitators this month to dream about the possibilities for the festival moving forward and prepare everyone to create a brave space for trauma survivors throughout, we are totally confident that these two weeks will be spectacular in their own right, and the start of something even stronger moving forward.
If you have experienced or are experiencing homelessness, have a look at the schedule and get involved. We’ll be around most of the time, as well as when facilitating, so please do introduce yourself if you haven’t met us yet and you would like to do so.
MBU: Make and Be You, with Bahja Mahamed
It fills us with so much pride to have secured funding for the first time for a project initiated by one of our core group members! Bahja is a beam of light, and is throwing her energy into this short content creation course on camera and editing skills, defining your narrative and setting your strategy for sharing your work on social media. Of course, social media is hardly known for its trauma-consciousness at the moment, so we will be co-facilitating some of the sessions to support finding positive ways to use it, whether you’re selling a product or service, campaigning for or raising awareness of something, or sharing your creativity with the world.
Places are limited and Camden residents are prioritised - but if you can’t get on this time, there will be further opportunities later in the year.
Alongside those sessions, our main involvement here will be developing a short film about breaking free from coercive control with a handful of the participants we have already selected, and can’t wait to share with you when it’s ready.
Final thank-yous of the year
It would be remiss of us to celebrate good funding news and thank people at the end of this year without also extending our thanks once again to the Linbury Trust for being our very first funders, to the many organisations and groups who have commissioned our work or offered contributions, and to the individuals who have supported us via our Give As You Live page: every little bit really does make a huge difference, and we love bringing you into what we love to do and believe in with all our hearts.
See you in 2025, if not before!
Yay! Great news Nell. I'm so glad to see your hard work bearing funding fruit, as well as all the other fruit it was already bearing. Onwards and upwards for RAT in 2025.