I arrived at The George Hotel in Huddersfield last night and the  hotel window looks out onto the town square in front of the train station.  It’s a nice enough place. My relationship with huddersfield goes back some years to PROPER JOB Theatre company who commissioned  a play.  I can’t even remember the title.   That was fifteen years ago. 

But today the  workshop’s for young people at Huddersfield Univeristy. Not just any young people.  They are part of a drive to make university available to children in the care system.  Less than one percent of children in care  attend university.  It is a disgusting statistic  when you consider that a child in care is under the legal parentage of the government.

Because of  the   beaurocracy, through cross agency work  there’s been  alot of  focused atention   to get  them here. There are fifteen in all, from childrens homes and foster care.  They hadn’t  met each other. They’re in one spacious room. Each of them has a key worker who leaves when I arrive. University staff and  youth worker sit back and let me do what i do best.  My job is to get them to write a poem.  

I spent two hours with one group in the morning and two hours with a different group  in the afternoon. By the end of the day they all had the  first draft of a poem. Tomorrow they will work on it some more and tomorrow night they will read it  in front of an audience in the university theatre. The event has already sold out.   I go back to the hotel once again reminded of why I do what I do.  Later on  I sit in the hotel bar and drink. Considering I stopped drinking seven months ago. This is not a good thing. It is not a good thing at all.