(Sam) January

It has certainly been a long while since we last posted, but hopefully after Claire’s next blog, it will be easy to understand why we have not felt able to write anything for a while. But before the bad news, I would love to share with you just one aspect about the first week of the running of the Pink House.

January was a crazy month, with many unresolved areas needing to be resolved in an extremely short space of time to get the house and the team ready to run. There is now the most incredible team in place, who truly love the girls and believe in the potential in each of them for a very different and life-giving future. As the doors opened on the 28th Jan, the girls were extremely expectant, and massively curious as to what this project would actually mean for them each day.

The one word that would sum up their main reaction in the first week was ‘overwhelmed’! I think that it began for the girls with more of a bang than they could have imagined, not in terms of fireworks and aerial dance displays! but in exciting and meaningful activities, an engaging and dedicated dance teacher, a house that had obviously been purpose-decorated only for them, and a team who from the word ‘go’ demonstrated that they were fully dedicated to them in every sense. They suddenly had quality art materials and resources to use, a storage space just for them, and a diary with pen and pencil that they could write anything they wanted on. They immediately felt a sense of ownership – all this had been put together for them and it was a safe space.

It made the stress and pain around getting it all together completely worth it and we literally burst with joy for the girls! Of course, there were some obvious initial tensions, some girls who tried to push the boundaries with the team, and quite a few practical hitches, but I think that from the girls’ point of view, this project was different to anything that they had been part of before, and by the end of the first four days, I believe they already felt, or began to feel that here was a space in which they were accepted and could belong.