This Week at Pulling Together we began to paint our word collages for our Body Talk project. Finding positive words suitable for our images was quite challenging but each person managed to start their collage. Using magazines and online images we have taken part in discussions about the dangers of unrealistic expectations when looking at social media and who we follow.

This week at Pulling Together we celebrated our end of project event for our Rites of Passage project. We all shared our goody bags that were delivered to the members the day before as we watched our presentation and discussed what we had learnt during the project.

This week at Pulling Together we completed the Canva Presentation of Rites of Passage. Using Canva has given some of Pulling Together confidence in making a video presentation with an online program. Some of the members have been so happy learning this new skill that they will use it on their own as well as hoping to continue using it during the Body Talk project. One member said “there are so many pre-made templates as well as the chance to build from scratch. And I can upload my own images if I need to use them.”

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This week at Pulling Together we completed the soft book on Rites of Passage. Thank you to all the members who help stitch up the final book. We also continued with our twice weekly sessions on Body Talk. A project funded by Comic Relief. During this project we hope to look at body image and self-esteem. We hope to encourage the women to become peer mentors who are proud of their bodies whatever shape and size. Women will have the opportunity to seek out information on available support, especially now that we’re in lockdown. We aim to create canvases that depict positive body images and words.

This week at Pulling Together we were contacted by Faiza from Together Dementia Support and their Pyaari Yaadein project. Please contact Faiza directly if you know of anyone who would benefit from support the group or to attend their free online sessions.

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This week at Pulling Together we have been working on Canva to create a digital presentation of what we have learnt during the Rites of Passage project. Most of the members of the group are new to Canva and programs like it so this week’s Zoom session was mainly getting used to the program and to find images for the project.

This week at Pulling Together we have continued with the embroidery of the images that we have made to go into our soft cloth book about Rites of Passage. Thank you to all of the members that have been working on the project.

This week at Pulling Together we said goodbye to 2020 with a midweek session. Seeing the end of this very difficult year has been very hard and all our hopes are that the next year is better. We are continuing with our Rites of Passage project and have enjoyed listening to members stories of key moments in our lives.