I was reminded last night that we hadn’t provided a report on the November and December meetings, for which we must apologise. I think it possible that Christmas preparations might have got in the way!
In November the main focus of the meeting was an excellent talk that was given by one of our members, Regina Al-Habib Nmeir. She gave a short presentation about the work that she is involved in with the Fine Cell Work charity.
Fine Cell Work is a charity and social enterprise which enables prisoners to build fulfilling and crime-free lives. they do this by training them in high-quality, skilled, creative needlework undertaken in the long hours spent in their cells to foster hope, discipline and self-esteem. There aim is to allow them to finish their sentences with work skills, money earned and saved, and the self-belief to not re-offend. They also guide them towards training and support on release.
At the Fine Works Hub, a London-based workshop, they also run an Open the Gate programme which provides work experience, formal training and employment to ex-prisoners.
Further information about The Fine Cell Work can be found at:https://finecellwork.co.uk/pages/about-us
It was a thought provoking talk and it was interesting to hear how much therapeutic benefits the prisoners gained from their stitching whilst also producing some stunning hand embroidered items. There was a stimulating discussion at the end with various questions being answered by Regina.
We were also delighted to be joined by a number of guests from other local groups. Regina also had some beautiful samples of the prisoners work that we were able to purchase.
After talk we had our usual show and tell, and bimonthly challenge and below are images of some of the work that members brought in. As usual, lots of lovely creatives ideas and stitching .
All in all we had an excellent evening.
December Meeting
We had great fun at the December meeting with our Lucky Dip Secret Santa, a delicious selection of Christmas nibbles and a fabulous Fabric Donation/ Swop which raised an amazing £65 for club funds. Thank you to all who participated, both in bringing fabric, (in particular Viv for being so generous with her fabric swaps), and taking part in buying – you were all very generous and a lot of happy faces going home with unexpected treasure.