Jak’s World has offered something for everyone in Autumn 2025
Jak’s World has offered something for everyone in Autumn 2025.
We finished the gifts we made in our Summer art workshops at Ordsall Library, funded by the Lowry. The paintings, tote bags, keyrings, pet rocks, friendship bracelets and words of hope attracted visitors to our stalls at Park Life, Salford Pink Party, The Tatton Family Fun Day, and the Lusoconnection conference for Portuguese speakers. Working with your hands can help you to talk.
The beautiful Jak’s World conference for Suicide Prevention gathered 60 delegates, and many visitors, into Salford Lads and Girls Club. Survivors, families and professionals shared their knowledge, and supported each other in search of wellbeing and strong mental health.
That evening, we met the Walk for World Suicide Prevention Day, which had come from @StaRT to Salford Museum, to be welcomed with music, spoken words and cake, hosted by Salford City Council.
On Monday evenings, as the nights draw in, we go to Hopeful Horizons : meditation, laughter therapy, men’s and women’s groups, in rotation at the Lads’ Club.
Once a month, we have a Grief Café at The Tatton, Ordsall. We get our tea or coffee and biscuits, sit round tables, and listen to each other talking about loss, coping, and not coping. We don’t gossip, judge, or tell anyone what to do. Sometimes we do art and craft. It’s surprising how much the Grief Café helps us to manage.
🎭In October, Black History Month, we saw a powerful play about child soldiers in Uganda. The brilliant @John Rwothomach, who wrote Far Gone, also performed it at Lowry. John just missed being orphaned in a massacre, and press-ganged into a warlord’s ‘army’. The one-person show contrasted childhood in a peaceful village with the trauma of civil war. John would like to tell his vital story round the world, maybe funded by a charity. He’s writing another true-life play, about kids who escape from the rebels, as if they broke out of Hell. They try to recover, and incredibly, they can regenerate their lives.
🎬A Magical film, The Low Road, was shown at The University of Salford in Media City. Most college movies are set in a few libraries and lecture rooms, with lots of pubs and party scenes – well, that’s entertainment, not a ‘How To’ video. ‘The Low Road’ is different. It’s a beautiful story about love and darkness. Ellie and friends are researching how people live around the world, and her Summer project is looking into ‘What Makes us Human?’ (Rachel Dick)
Ellie’s charming friend Lewis struggles with his studies, dreaming of adventures on the road. It’s no spoiler to know that, early on, there’s a hard shock: poor Lewis dies by suicide (Adam Bregman).
His mother’s heart is broken (a revelation, by Jane-Paul Gets). Some of the friends blame Ellie for not saving Lewis. Ellie’s desperate. She runs away, into the hills. Ellie is surprised by wild woods, lochs and glens. What’s her future? What’s she getting into? She could meet anyone (a fine cast, including the veteran Ewan Stewart). Writer-director Stephen Mulhearn has made a magical road movie, a coming-of-age drama, and a folk story in search of human nature.
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