For 6-months, I've led a creative writing group at the Ozanam Learning Centre, Woolloomooloo, (https://www.vinnies.org.au/nsw/find-help/ozanam-learning-centre) which serves the homeless and disadvantaged community with therapeutic, creative and practical experiences.
The group has focused on poetry and also includes prose, humour and other forms of writing.

The writers' talent is incredible and they have been overwhelmingly positive in their feedback for the group. Multiple participants have expressed the desire to be published and creating our own small-run volume of poetry and prose is more appropriate (and less stressful for writers) than mainstream publishing.

I would like to print 100 copies of a 80-page A5, hardcover books. This would give participants a really special keepsake for them and friends, as well as offer copies at an open day to recoup costs.

Leading the group is a highlight of my week and real joy, which has opened doors of understanding regarding literature to people who deserve access to beauty, creativity, historical context and the life of the mind and deserve to be heard.

The theme of 'The Good Life' has been an overarching idea, one of the great conversations stretching back to Ancient Greece, Persia, China and beyond. Within this, we have explored the many sub-catalysts for writing - the many types of friendships, home, hospitality, new beginnings, hope, freedom and so forth.

It has also been striking that when discussing the group, it's not uncommon for people to react with surprise that people who are / have been homeless are interested in and capable of literary acumen and accomplishment. It's something I was unsure of when starting the group but have been delighted beyond measure at the talent and brilliance in our creative writers.

This will be a project that shares the profundity and sophistication of voices of people who've faced homelessness in Sydney. This is a non-commercial printing of poetry that I'd also like to excerpt in literary outlets and make available to public libraries/some schools potentially.

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race." (Walt Whitman)