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ARC LIGHT

Nights on a street, rain and cold bringing me close to defeat

Night then day, night then day, little by little losing my way

Then I was told that there was a room at Arc Light, finally a chance to get out of the cold.

So in I walked with my spirits high at least I can be dry

The computer room, the cafe and the gym, now my rebuilding of my life can begin

Got given a keyworker now not trying to suck up but with her I know I will not get stuck

Few people I know, nobody I trust but that’s the way to go

Now my future starting to come into sight, I’d best buy shades as it’s gonna be bright.

 JJ

Blogs » In memory of Graham Wilby

Graham died on 2 October, 2009. We had known him for over 10 years and he spent the last (too) few months with us at Arc Light.

I would like to share with you a few thoughts of working with Graham over his (regrettably) last few months with us.

It became obvious from the outset that any attempt at structured support work was doomed. Our first scheduled session saw Graham, tense, belligerent and uncommunicative, every fibre of his body poised for flight, ready to bolt through the door at the earliest opportunity, whilst varying degrees of “whatever” flitted across his face as I attempted to be helpful. We discussed this afterwards and decided we would throw out the rule book and “go with the flow” in future.

After that most of our key working sessions took place, seemingly by chance, in the smoking shelter. Dragging away at our roll-ups we chewed the fat, attempted to put the world to rights, and bemoaned the passing of an era we had once known and the erosion of personal freedom which we had seen transformed over the years into the Big Brother surveillance society we found ourselves living in now.

Graham was “old school”, anti-authority, anti-establishment, revolutionary, a true child of the 60’s and 70’s and we found we recognised each other and spoke a similar language. From our shared experiences it became possible to talk with great honesty about Graham’s rapidly failing health and his fears about the implications of this and its impact on his lifestyle.  We were also able to address the difficult transition from street life to community living and how this could be achieved with as little loss of personal integrity as possible.

Graham embodied for me the essence of yin and yang, symbol of the unity of opposites. He had been the butt of the cruel, violent, uncaring and hurtful aspects of human nature but had also at times received generosity and been shown the softer, warmer, compassionate underbelly of humanity from those he met on his journey through life. This was also reflected in Graham’s character and behaviour which sometimes left others feeling confused as he could appear somewhat menacing and aggressive in certain situations and warm, generous and understanding at other times.

There are two things about Graham that deeply touched me at the time and remain with me now. Firstly Graham’s own deep humanity and compassion for others (particularly young people) despite being at a time in his life when he could have been forgiven for turning inward to focus on his own battle with his considerable physical and spiritual agony. Graham seemed to be totally unaware that he possessed these qualities and was entirely disbelieving of his own worth. Graham often came to me completely baffled about why anyone should care what happened to him, it was beyond his comprehension. The smallest gesture of goodwill extended toward Graham elicited expressions of great appreciation and gratitude from him, small acts of consideration that for many of us here today may have gone unnoticed or been taken for granted were treated by Graham as great gifts that touched him deeply.

As we stand here today both celebrating Graham’s life and bidding him farewell my only regret lies in wishing he could have experienced the “sanctuary” of a having a room of his own where he could shut the door on the world when he chose to and the support of others around him for a while longer. That he could have replaced his self-loathing with a more balanced perception of himself as the warm human being he was when not daily defending himself against the harshness of living and sleeping rough on the streets.

And finally, Graham made it clear that he did not want today to be about gravity and grieving rather something more akin to the spirit of the poem I will now read written by the late Joyce Grenfell.

If I should go before the rest of you,

Break not a flower or inscribe a stone

Nor when I am gone speak in a Sunday voice

But be the usual selves that I have known.

Weep if you must,

Parting is hell

But life goes on

So sing as well.

Blogs » Arc Light building wins design award

The new Arc Light building was triumphant in the new build section of the 2009 York Design Awards based on the following criteria: Design and Details, Context, Materials and Workmanship, and Sustainability

Ken Powell MA, Hon. FRIBA,  Chair of the judges commented:

‘The Arc Light Building is remarkable for the way in which it reflects the ethos of the organisation which commissioned it. Though built to a far from extravagant budget, it has a feeling of generosity, in terms of spaces and materials, too often lacking in residential care buildings. This is a building designed to re-equip its residents for lfe in the world "outside" and there is no sense here of either enclosure or exclusion. The Arc Light is welcoming, open, inviting, comfortable and, as the name suggests, it is full of light, natural light used to excellent effect to animate the internal spaces. A good neighbour to nearby historic buildings, it is a notable addition to York's architectural heritage.’

Following the success of the first York Design Awards in 2007, launched by the then Lord Mayor, Cllr Janet Hopton, the York Design Awards are now in their third year. The aim of the Awards is to encourage and promote excellence in design and conservation, striving for the highest standards.

These prestigious Awards were open to all developments within the City of York Council boundary completed between 1st January 2006 and 31st December 2008.

The panel of four judges are all eminent in their chosen fields of architecture, planning and conservation.

Ken Powell is an architecture writer and critic, Hon. Secretary of the Architectural Association, a former director of the Twentieth Century Society, and serves on London Diocesan Advisory committee, Guildford Cathedral Fabric Committee, and Leeds Diocese Historic Churches Committee.

Blogs » Arc Light wins The Michael Whipmann Award

The rendezvous was set for 8am at Arc Light. We set off with a car full of excitement and nervous tension. After a few stops, a few songs on the radio and a few wrong turns we arrived at Warwick university.

We rushed into the auditorium to find hundreds of people from various homeless hostels across the country. We took our place and the film rolled. Our films on the big screen, first ‘life on the streets’ then ‘dreams of kiss’. At first we were unsure if people liked our films. Some of the others were good too and they’d won in previous years.

We went out for a drive to cool our nerves. We decided a pub lunch was in order. It worked. After huge portions of food we headed back to the university. We mingled for a while and had a coffee, still not knowing the result. The clock was creeping towards 4pm so we decided to take our seats.

Third prize goes to.... not us... second prize goes to... not us again... so either we’ve won or we’ve lost... and the winner of the Michael Whippman award is... Arc Light featuring Decibel... we’ve won. We’ve actually won.

An acceptance speech & a few posed photographs later and we tried to let it sink in. We spoke to the runners up who congratulated us and asked if we could co-produce a video in the future? What an idea! It was then time to go on our merry way in the hope that we can do it again sometime soon.