I started my first group with a refugee group who meet in Darwen at the United reformed Church…I have worked with them at Bolton Museum once before, so I knew some of them and knew the difficulties of engaging them. People tended to drop-in throughout the group, so along with that and difficulty communicating made engagement difficult.There was also a toddler! I did find when group members had come along especially for the group they were much easier to engage in the activity, but people just dropping by did not seem interested. People walk in to the church in crisis and not being able to speak a word of English, so the last thing on their mind is creativity, (which I can appreciate), so maybe seeing a group of people being creativity is a sign of hope for them and I should not underestimate the impact that could have.
All the interruptions made progress slow, but once we were half way through I could feel the group start to relax and hopefully find their flow. It was really difficult to read the group members… asking them was difficult due to communication, so all I had was body language. Maybe the work can speak for them… I feel the work shows flow, so hopefully they did find some relaxation through their creativity.
