Genesis Life Projects continues to provide vital practical support, community connection, and personal development opportunities for our clients, who face complex life challenges. From April 2025 to February 2026, Genesis Life Projects has supported 577 clients over 9,757 visits, demonstrating the scale and reach of our work. You can read more about Genesis Life Projects by clicking here.
One of the main aims of our projects is to use our safe and social environment to bring people together into a healthy supportive community. Loneliness and isolation are key issues for our clients (and the broader community) impacting their mental and physical health. We know that having a healthy support network is vital to their recovery and overall wellbeing.
Think about the last time you faced something difficult in your life. Who supported you to find a solution to that problem? It was probably someone you trusted from your community – family, friends, colleagues, neighbours. We can take for granted just how valuable our support network is.
For many of our clients, their support network is very small, so Genesis Life Projects fills that space. It becomes the supportive community needed to overcome loneliness and isolation.
How is the Genesis Community supporting clients?
Life Skills, a series of courses and workshops, continues to help our clients develop confidence, practical skills and social connections. These activities include creative groups, wellbeing courses and recovery programmes. It’s one of the key projects where our clients build a healthy, supportive community.
‘Thank you for having a knitting group on Friday morning. It always has a lovely atmosphere and it’s really beneficial for me to be around kind, supportive and understanding friends. Socialising with people who accept me as I am. It is something which has helped me to be more confident. Thank you Knitting Group.’
~ Life Skills client
Life Recovery includes the Life Course and SMART Recovery. The Life Course is for people recovering from addiction, trauma and poor mental health, whereas SMART Recovery is for people in active addiction, providing training and tools to change their problematic behaviour. Our measurement tools showed significant improvement in the lives of those who attended. Some of our clients have gained paid employment or moved on to other courses. We can’t show any photos of the SMART Recovery group for confidentiality reasons. The photos below are from our Life Course only.
Because these courses are very personal and the group sizes are small, clients regularly comment about the new friendships they make. Over the years, we have recognised that lasting positive change for our clients comes from combining learning news skills with peer support (friendship).
‘Once I got to know the group I enjoyed talking with other people. I spend a lot of time on my own. Jill helped me feel welcome and explained things clearly.’
~Life Course client
‘I made new friends on the course. It has given me coping techniques. I felt loved and less hopeless.’
~SMART Recovery client
Life Connect, our community meals, continues to build belonging and reduce isolation, with 3,164 visits and over 2,700 meals served from April 2025 to February 2026. We are pleased to have restarted our popular Wednesday breakfast since moving back to Gateway. These meals are another opportunity for community and social connection to thrive.
The past year has demonstrated the importance of our holistic approach, combining practical help with community and belonging. Connection is what supports long-term change for our clients.
Thank you for helping us journey with our clients from crisis to independence, from despair to hope.
