I am 64 years old twice divorced, and an ex offender. Trying to find gainful employment, at my time of life, is proving to be one of the most demanding tasks of my life. Trying to even get an interview for a job, at sixty four, is bad enough, but the task is doubly confounded by being an ex-convict.

This constant rejection has brought on depression, and, for the first time in my life,  I am taking antidepressants and sleeping pills. For the first time in my life I had a never ending feeling of uselessness, when most of my life I felt I had a sense of purpose.

Going to prison caused me to be ostracised from my family, so I had nobody to count on for support. I know that going to prison was my own fault, and I’m not looking for sympathy in that respect, but a little support would have been nice. I joined the Mustard Tree to help me gain work experience in a job that I had never done before, that is working in the kitchen. Whilst I was volunteering at the Mustard Tree, I found the support that I felt my life was lacking.

Again it was whilst working at the Mustard Tree that I got involved with Manchester Street Poem (MSP), I found the work very therapeutic, and I felt that writing my story down, to share with others, seemed to ease the burden. The work that I do with MSP makes me feel useful again, and I have recently been involved, in a consulting role, with the architecture of a new building, within Manchester Metropolitan University, with ideas of how to make buildings more accessible for people from all walks of life, including the homeless, using non-aggressive architecture.

Working with MSP gave me the opportunity to tell my story through art, and the project is now close to my heart. I met lots of like-minded people who, like me, were also homeless at some point in their lives. As a result of this my support network has grown immensely, they are all good friends who I feel able to discuss ANY problem with.

It also gives me a sense of achievement, if just one person reads one of our stories, and feels able to help in some way, then our goal has been met. Obviously we aim to reach lots of people, to get the message out to as many people as possible, but if it has to be one at a time, I think that’ll do……..for now!

On a lighter note the painting of the images behind the words, is also very therapeutic, I don’t often get the chance to paint with a mop!!