Playwright and director John Binnie has been working with writers from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) Restart groups in Bridgeton and Maryhill. Participants in the project performed their poetry and stories at this year’s Glasgow Aye Write Festival which took place in March.

Restart is a NHSGGC mental health project that works with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s Community Mental Health Teams. The main focus of the project is to offer recovery based support to those living with severe and enduring mental health conditions.

Kate Keating, Vocational Guidance Counsellor with the Restart project said:“Well done to all our participants who performed at this year’s Aye Write Festival. The writer’s showed unique vision and it was so positive to see writers from different geographical areas and abilities coming together and sharing their work. Subjects written were diverse and audience members spoke about how humbled they felt and honoured to hear such honest and deeply felt writing. The audience spoke about the sheer variety of writing and how everyone had an individual story to tell and how good it was to hear those voices.” 

“Writers spoke about how good and necessary it was to have an event like Aye Write where people can come together and read out their work. Participants spoke about how nervous they were, but how confident they felt after sharing their work which has been published in two booklets.. A special thank you to NHSGGC Endowment Fund who made all this possible.“

You can download the booklets from the Bridgeton Group  and from the Maryhill Group.