The Peaced Together group at Edinburgh City Mission was featured on BBC1’s Songs of Praise. The church runs Peaced Together with Creative English support materials to make it accessible to new Scots who are developing their English language skills.
The Peaced Together programme takes people on a journey from brokenness to hope, helping them come to terms with difficult seasons of their lives and move forward. The partnership between Creative English and Peaced Together has made the programme accessible to those processing their migration experiences. The programme covers a range of topics including peace and courage, explored through a range of crafts and exercises.
The programme interviewed participants. Many of whom have moved to the UK from places where it was no longer safe to live. One of the participants, Nida from Syra explained,
Every time I feel this is my family and they are also feeling that, I think.
The presenter affirmed,
The minute I walked in, you could feel the warmth of the connections that these women have developed.
The group’s facilitator, Lydia summed up her goal in running the group,
We have this word, New Scot, that we use to talk about refugees and asylum seekers and people who are new to Scotland and I want that to be a lived experience rather than just a label. I think that there’s something really transforming when you meet people and you see how alike that you are and how much we have in common. And I think for me, it’s completely humbling.