YOUNG homeless people came together to decorate their hostel with a mural.
‘Urban artist’ Andy Birch visited The Foyer supported living complex in Wrexham to help residents get artistic for a new common room.
He said: “I want them to tell us what it’s like living here, what
The Foyer does for them.
“We’re going to try and capture those ideas and put them in the mural, putting the message over in a quite cool way, nice and bright.”
The Foyer gives homeless people aged between 16 and 25 somewhere to live and support in getting back on their feet. Once completed, the room will also have a TV, pool table and other equipment.
Resident David Morrison, 22, said: “It’s very creative and it keeps your mind occupied.
“It will give us something better to look at than these pink walls. I think it’s going to look amazing.”
Learning support co-ordinator Ade Harvey said he was proud of the residents for getting stuck in.
Steven Roberts, 22, said: “Ade bends over backwards to help us do what we want with the activities.
“I think it will look really smart. We can come in here and chill out with everyone instead of having to go to each other’s rooms.”
Jade Storah, 19, said: “We’ll make it comfortable and cheerful and can actually say we’ve done this ourselves and we can be really proud of it.
“When I came here I was down and didn’t have any willpower. Then I got involved in loads of activities.
“Now I’ve got an interview next week for working with children with disabilities. My confidence has really, really grown.”
Andy Roberts, supervising manager with Clwyd Alyn, which runs The Foyer, said: ”We could quite easily have gone to a decorating firm to paint it all puce or something, but we want the young people to feel they have a say in where they live.
“We want the common room to be somewhere people can hang out
in a nice, light setting, and help dispel the idea that this is a dingy,
drab, depressing place.
“It’s fair to say nobody wants to be here, but they can feel it’s a warm, vibrant place with things happening for young people.”