Painting for charity

Today was a day of work with a difference - rather than a day at the office, I joined several of my colleagues to spend the day helping the Manchester-based charity NEARIS paint two rooms in their centre on Swan Street.

NEARIS was established 1992 to provide education, resettlement and rehabilitation services for adults experiencing problems with drugs, alcohol, mental ill-health, homelessness and / or offending behaviour. Their centre in Manchester is also known by the acronym MERC (Manchester Educational Resettlement Centre), which previously existed as an educational project in its own right going back to 1977.

This was the second time we'd supplied a team of volunteers to help NEARIS brighten up their training and educational rooms, and today's challenge was to re-paint their training room / kitchen area and their art room. I was part of the team concentrating on the art room, a large, airy, bright space ideally suited for teaching art.

We achieved more than we expected to; not only repainting the walls but also painting the skirting boards, doors and door frames too - to the delight of the regular staff and volunteers.

For me the day was not only motivating, uplifting and perhaps a little humbling, but also sad and a little anguished too. I reflected about past times, good and bad, with my late cousin Ian, before alcohol and drugs took over his world and eventually, after a long and painful decline, and despite the best efforts of his family, led to his death at just 35. Maybe had he sought help from NEARIS he could have turned things round, so if they can change the lives of others faced with similar turmoil then I for one applaud them.