Celebration

  This week is celebration week at SafeHope Home and I thought that it would be a good idea to explain to the readers what that looks like. Celebration week always creates a sense of excitement in the house. On celebration day, staff and participants get together to congratulate participants on the progress that has been made over the past few months. Participants get certificates for all the courses that they have completed; staff, as well as participants, create small presentations to share.

  As someone who comes from a human trafficking background, I am very grateful for celebration days because while I was actively going through my trafficking situation I had lost all self-worth. Identifying the hard work that I’ve put into my recovery, as well as receiving praise from others has really helped my self-esteem. It’s also teaching me how to receive compliments, which is definitely something that I’m not too familiar with.

  When I was still a fairly new participant at SafeHope, celebrations definitely were not my favourite part of this program. I would often self-sabotage right before they happened because receiving positive feedback was the last thing I wanted. After receiving some guidance from staff members here at the house, I’ve been able to identify these patterns in order to change them. 

  The celebration that we had this week is a little bittersweet to me because it is my last celebration before I graduate from the program, I’ve learned so much over the last year there have definitely been moments where I thought about giving up but I am so grateful that I’ve made it all the way through I’ve gotten an education through SafeHope Home that I will never be able to get from anywhere else. Thank you for reading the blog this week. I will talk soon.

Ciao for now

Ricky