Rose Castle Foundation hosts first in-person workshop since pandemic

This week, the Rose Castle Foundation hosted its first in-person workshop since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, welcoming a group of fourteen changemakers from Liverpool to Rose Castle.

The workshop emerged from RCF’s partnership with ‘L8 A Better Place’, a team at the Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre, whose aim is to support people and organisations to transform the L8 postal code area in Liverpool into a better place to live and work.

The workshop focussed on how to create hospitality in L8, by providing a space where people could come and authentically share who they are. 

Two workshop participants share a joyful moment with Canon Sarah Snyder.

Space was given to thoughtfully consider what it means to be a host and a guest in spaces of diversity and difference and empowered with an understanding of reconciliation, hospitality, and creativity, and what this means for their daily lives.

One participant, Ibe Hayter, said: “I believe that hearts can speak to hearts and through the kind hospitality we received at Rose Castle it was easy for us to understand everything the team were sharing with us.

“I have hope that radical hospitality can help us as activists mend broken hearts and provide a step towards solutions to deep rooted divisions in our community.”

Another participant, Saloma Ithnin, added: “The welcome I received […] was a sense of care, kindness with a professional aspect. I was greeted in a genuine manner of great empathy and understanding.

“I can take away many useful ideas from the discussions and element these in my particular interests in helping the community.”

The fourteen changemakers from L8, Liverpool, during their workshop at Rose Castle.

The one-day workshop at Rose Castle forms part of a larger journey that RCF and L8 A Better Place are going on together. In future, Rose Castle Foundation is looking forward to hosting the group in Rose Castle for a residential programme, as well as visiting them in Liverpool.

Speaking after the workshop, RCF’s Programme Coordinator, Hannah Larn, commented: “It was a real privilege to be able to bring a group of people together in a new space, and to see them enjoy it and open up to one another.

“One participant shared that this was his first time leaving Merseyside since before Covid. Later, the same participant connected with another when they both realised the amount of work they were doing on mental health. Holding space for these special encounters to happen was a real highlight."

The workshop was designed to provide a space where people could come and share authentically who they are.

Hannah added: “This programme was designed around one neighbourhood in Liverpool. The conversation has left me reflecting on how much this community can model hospitality across divides to other neighbourhoods across the city of Liverpool, as well as potential to connect with community activists in other cities across the UK.”