16 May 2025 Wonderful Workshop with Kairos
As Members Manager one of the highlights of my year so far has been getting the chance to facilitate a workshop for the women at Kairos, a Coventry based Organisation run by women for women. Kairos provides holistic, trauma informed, long term support and advocacy for women who are subject to or at risk of sexual exploitation. It was a chance to lead a confidence building drama workshop with the women from their Queen Bee project. This project focuses on building up women’s right to feel safe by growing participants’ self-esteem while teaching them about empowerment and consent.
Drama facilitator Liz and I were brought inside the church building which felt warm and welcoming and found the women sat together, chatting and casually enjoying a hot drink. We all shared stories reflecting on how we build empowering moments into our morning routines, our favourite positive affirmations for keeping our minds strong, and how we can use these to improve our mood and build up our mental resilience.
In the workshop we played lots of fun warm up games, slowly encouraging participants to build up the trust within the circle to allow themselves to ‘have a go’ and ‘be silly’. We then worked in small groups to share a still image that told a story of something that made each person smile. We got a fantastic range of ideas from winning at darts, to the atmosphere at a football match, to a comical garden fence disagreement between a dog and a cat. Next we collaborated to add layers to the images; one line of each character’s internal monologues and then an accompanying sounds scape. This really helped the scenes to burst into life and brought us all joy as we were drawn inside people’s happy and silly memories.
After the workshop we shared a tasty lunch together, we laughed, discussed what they would be doing next in Queen Bees, and reflected on how it felt to participate in some drama. We celebrated that everyone had contributed to what was made and that it took bravery to let your guard down enough to be part of the process. The day was also a really good chance to grow in strength by bringing together two small local organisations, connecting and sharing our assets, to ensure a richer offer for vulnerable people in Coventry.
“I liked the second half of the workshop. I was a bit anxious at the start, but then I got into it. I found it fun”Workshop Participant
If you are interested in a workshop with us get in touch. https://undergroundlights.org/contact