Not just a pizza night

Written by Ruby

Ruby joined the Supportive Employment Program in 2023 and became a SEP Lead in 2024. She presents Life Skills, a weekly group activity for WISH participants, at midnight every Saturday night / Sunday morning.

This was not just a Pizza Night, but a community strengthening and confidence building event, bringing participants together in a positive group setting.

This event was much more diverse than my usual events, in which discussions were carried out followed by ready-made snacks. This event was going to entail independence and teamwork. Making pizza together, including the dough, from scratch.

Seeing participants work as team to complete a common goal was priceless. Co-ordinating, calculating, and taking each other’s opinion into consideration, to succeed.

It’s moments like this I’ve come to realize participants want to conversate without their guard up. They share aspects of their lives they want to share, like a past employment history that required great skill in the kitchen or a child’s favourite meal. Each participant that participated shared a unique relevant story.

Hearing participants build each other’s confidence I’m sure was more valuable than a staff member’s compliment in this moment, with participants working under pressure to not let each other down and assisting each other to complete their given task.

Participants mentioned how self-sufficiency gets lost in shelter living and an activity such as this makes them revaluate aspects of their life and what they want in their future. Whether it’s permanent housing, finding a stable partner or wanting sobriety.

I must admit making a successful pizza dough is a daunting task for anyone. The success of this event goes entirely to each participant that put in the work.

Participants that made commitments to make the dough kept true to their word and those participants who learned about the event days before made sure to be included by offering their skills. This is a huge victory.

Part of Life Skills is being accountable to engagements made. Each participant brought a skill they say they hadn’t visited in a long time.

This event was a huge responsibility I had taken on. It took me out of my comfort zone as well. We were all in this together. I’m more than proud to say the participants had a fabulous event. An event where they created the narrative.

Thank you to my co-worker for dealing with the daytime excitement. Reminding participants of the upcoming event and including participants who had missed the announcement, making sure to get them included as per their request. Goes to show “it takes a village…”

And thank you to Shelter management for approving my request and supplying everything the participants requested to make this event successful.