Social Care London

Raising the Roof 5: Spring 2024

This programme ran online for ten weeks between January and March 2024 and was different from the others in one important way: the young people took part alongside the staff who work with them, joining together from the house where they live. Sessions were led by Jim Pope and the writer Lin Coghlan, with Ashley Mayer, a former Raising the Roof participant, now co-facilitating. The group agreed its own creative agreement, including keeping what was shared in sessions out of key worker meetings, and worked through games, memory exercises, hot-seating and improvised scenes. The stories that emerged were set around a hostel: two young men sharing a room, one hiding the real reason he is there; Luka and Cindy, who don't share a language and have to find other ways to communicate; and Tim, who at fourteen is told by family friends, in the middle of a vintage car exhibition, that his stay with them is to become permanent so he can go to school in the UK. The team noted the real effect working together had on relationships between the young people and staff.