Church Army helps ex-offenders and addicts get back on track

Church Army's Valley of Hope project has been working with the Welsh National Opera on its groundbreaking 'Street Songs' project.

Valley of Hope, based in the Rhondda valley, supports ex-offenders and those previously homeless, or struggling with drug or alcohol additions, helping them get their lives back on track. These real-life experiences of homelessness, addiction and family breakdown have provided the raw material for 'Street Songs'.

Working with people who have benefited from the Valley of Hope, artists from the Welsh National Opera (WNO) provided a series of workshops in song-writing, music-making and visual arts. This enabled WNO to translate the participants' life stories into a number of mediums, each representing a different dimension of the opera experience; be it performance or design.

Between the participants, they have created 6 original songs, or arias, and 5 unique pieces of artwork, which have been turned into posters and postcards. Kate Woolveridge, Owen Webb and Stacey Blythe of WNO have already performed these brand-new songs in December, on the Cardiff to Aberdare trainline, to unassuming Christmas shoppers. Once the initial shock wore off, passengers gave the three a sustained round of applause!

This event was captured by award-winning film-maker Davina Payne, who has used it as a basis for a documentary of the project entitled 'Opera Express'. This honest and uplifting film was recently placed on the WNO website and shows how people who are at rock bottom can still turn their lives around, as long as they are given hope and a helping hand. 'Opera Express' features Sian, Geoff and Tania from the Valley of Hope, as well as project manager Ralph Upton.

In Ralph's words 'Street Songs' gives its participants: "A chance to do something they'd never done before … something that they could see some results of, because they've never achieved anything in their lives until now."